Phu Quoc reminds me of a cross between Tonga and Bali. Hardly any tourists, being in the rainy season which is a nice change. We arrived at our hotel which was just up from Long Beach. Discovered a chilled bar on the beach and had a delicious seafood feast. The next day we headed to the beach for the day. Alas we were rejected from the beach as the resorts that monopolise the beach will not let you use the beach even for payment which seems rediculous. In a huf...

We flew via Vietnam Airlines to Nga Trang. The crew on the plane we pretty disinterested and this was a worst flight to date. Fortunately, it was only an hours flight. After researching the transport options, we decided on flying as it was cheaper and easier. Nha Trang is bizarre! Similar to Da Nang in that it is located on the coast with a vast expanse of a picture postcard beach lined with high rises. There the comparison ends though. It was strangely enough f...

Da Nang was a surprise; a very modern city that we were told had little corruption compared to the rest of Vietnam. The city is the third largest in Vietnam and set on the coast of the South China Sea and at the mouth of the Han River. A multitude of high rises line the pristine beach and huge growth is going on with the construction of high end resorts. We spent a day at the beach which was lovely and had the usual vendors trying to sell their tourist wares. Th...

We took the sleeper train from Hanoi to Dong Hoi which took 10 hours. We went during the day as we wanted to see the scenery but still chill out. The train was great although we did have to spend a fair bit of it sharing our 4 berth cabin with a couple of Vietnamese women who spoke no English. The countryside generally was lush with rice paddies and maintains rising like giants dotted amongst the jungle. A 25 minute drive in a taxi took us to Phong Nha which is ...

A few months ago we booked a luxury night on a junk boat around Halong Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay on the Dragon Legend as we thought by now we would want somewhere nice. Halong Bay which includes Bai Tu Long Bay to the north east (less touristy and from what we saw more stunning) is a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the new natural seven wonders of the world. The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and...