Sapa...this is definitely my favorite place in Vietnam. Located in a spectacular fertile valley near the border of China, this is Vietnam's premier scenic destination in the northwest. The mountains are huge, the weather is great, and the valleys are covered with rice terraces and populated with small villages of ethnic minority hill tribes that are still relatively untouched by the outside world...but this is changing fast! After an overnight train from Hanoi, I...

I've been following the weather forecast for over a week now. Finally, a sunny day is predicted for the day after Easter. I've been waiting for this exact moment to book a two day cruise of Vietnam's premier natural wonder and Unesco World Heritage site... Halong Bay. The bay and it's magnificent 3000 islands were formed thousands of years ago when a huge dragon descended from the mountains and it's massive flailing tail carved out valleys and gorges which later ...

Cat Ba Island is a pleasant little place just off the coast of mainland Vietnam that offers cool stuff to do like hiking, kayaking, and rock climbing. The problem was, however, that there was no one here to do any of these things with. Which for me, in a quiet place like this, I find rather boring. I met lots of people who came to the island for one night as part of a Halong Bay tour, but then they were off the next morning. About the only thing I accomplished ...

In the bustling capital city, you need to put the street crossing skills you learned in Saigon to use again as the traffic is constant and hectic. Hanoi is cool. It has a mix of old French colonial flair as well as distinct Vietnamese culture. Yet, the best thing about Hanoi is that there is a proper backpacker's hostel here run by a couple of Australian guys. The place is awesome and makes meeting people easier and city exploration a little more fun. If you come...

Hue would be a good city to visit.... if it wasn't raining. After checking the weather forecast and seeing rain for the next several days, I had no choice but to accept that I will get wet on a tour to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). So I went ahead and hired a motorbike and guide and headed off into the countryside awaiting the coming rains....and they came! So I know I was at Khe San, a military base used by the US during the war but I'm not sure what else I saw ...