Planes, Trains and Automobiles (with a Junket thrown in) PLANE - Saigon - Ha Noi (1.45 hours) The first leg of our journey North was easy. A pleasant 1.45 hour flight to Ha Noi. Once we had made it into the Old Quarter from the airport we were quickly picked up by a hotel tout. It was a nice hotel with a nice price but the staff were very pushy trying to sell you tours to SaPa and Halong Bay. (We did however take up on one of their tours the following day to Halo...

Mozzies, Motorbikes, Motorboats - Welcome to the Mekong Delta With more than a week before the arrival of an Aussie friend (ex Kiwi but gave up that title and became an Aussie to vote!!) I decided to head south and explore the Mekong Delta region. Known for its many thousands of kilometres of waterways I felt that I could fill my time exploring a few of them. My first challenge in getting there was getting to the bus station. It was quite a few km's out of ...

Taken for a ride in Saigon!!!!About 8:15am on Tuesday 22 July I touched down in Hoi Chi Min City, or as known to the locals -SAIGON!!! It is here that I begin to generously fill the pockets of the Vietnamese with my poor negotiating skills.Once making my way through customs and obtaining local currency from the ATM it was time to tackle the many taxi touts that awaited for my exit from the international airport. I was aware that there were two ways of getting a p...