We arrived in this lovely mountain town via a night train out of Hanoi. Metarphorically and literally Sapa proved to be a breath of fresh air for us after the frustrations of the capital. For a start it's a smallish town so no danger of being run over by hoardes of motor bikes every time you cross the road and the people here are genuinely nice and you don't feel you're going to get ripped off at every move. Best of all though, it's so much cooler, around fifteen...

We arrived here via another pretty grotty and uncomfortable night bus from Hue. Fortunately it is the last of our open bus tour journies as we should have relative comfort i.e the train for other journies we plan to make in the north to Sapa. Hanoi is smaller (4m people approx) than Saigon despite being the capital and has a different feel to the southern city. It's architecture is older and it's streets narrower, giving it a more interesting feel. Just like...

We arrived here via a morning bus from Hoi An. This was just a brief one night stop although we did have time to go and see the no doubt interesting attractions of this town such as the many tombs and temples but we simply couldn't be bothered. 'Why', I hear you cry. The heat is the very simple answer. Like Hoi An, this place is baking in temperatures over 40 degrees at the moment and taking a day trip in these conditions as we found out in Hoi An is just a passp...

We arrived here via a truly horrible night bus ride from Nha Trang. The bus was packed and we got the two worse seats in the house at the back, in the corner. There was precious little leg room, the seats were cramped and you just couldn't get even the remotest bit comfortable. Every time you woke up your neck was stiff and we arrived very grumpily and groggily in Hoi An at 6.30am on 4th June after 11 hours of misery. We had this coming I guess paying $29 for bus...

We arrived at this large beach town on 30th May and immediately Stuart signed up for his PADI open water course over three days so he can become a trained scuba diver. At $174 it was an absolute bargain, more than twice as cheap as you will get in Thailand so why bother to wait? DAY 1 The morning was spent watching three DVD's in the morning explaining much of the theory involved in diving. The afternoon was spent in a local swimming pool where I did tw...