Part two. So having arrived and manged to find a place to stay and even seen a way through the traffic and got to the other side of the road it was time to actually do something. Time to consult the Lonely Planet, look at it's 'two days in Saigon' section and copy it to the letter.....unless it involves to much walking about in the hot sun of course. In fact I can't say that we really did very much on our first day there except have something to eat and go to t...

"The average age of a combat veteran in World War Two was 35. In Vietnam it was 19. In Vietnam it was 19" Good stat there from Paul Hardcastle and his 80s hit "19" and also a tenuous link into us making it all the way to our final Nam destination of Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as i'll be calling it as it takes less time to type. First things first though and it was another long bus journey down to Saigon, but this time enlivened by the drive...

There isn't a lot to say really about our time in Nha Trang as although we were there four days we didn't really do that much except sit on sunbeds by the beach and read books and get drinks from the beachside bar. Nha Trang is Vietnam's premier holiday resort and as such it is pretty much like most other holiday resorts in the world - beach, bars and restaurants. The beach is 7km of golden sand and the weather was hot and sunny, albeit with a nice breeze coming...

Hoi An is universally loved by everyone who goes there it seems. No-one we have met who has been there has a bad word to say about the place. So it was with high hopes that we arrived there looking for some much needed rest and relaxation after the constant journeying of the past week or so and it has to be said that Hoi An did not disappoint. A small place by Vietnam standards, Hoi An avoided the bombing somehow from the AMericans and as such still has loads of...

Even though we've only been in Nam a week it already feels like we've been their ages, such perhaps is the feeling of tiredness that comes over you just by walking around Hanoi so it was not unwelcome that we be escaping southwards, where in addition we knew the sun to be shining. Vietnam's climate has a very definate North/South split. After the joys of the overnight trains, this time we went for the overnight bus and booked ourselves on the sleeper bus, paying...