Still one of my favourite places in the world Hoi An retains its quiet serenity. Life seems to flow by at an uneventful pace. Each day you find yourself slowing down to fully enjoy all that this little jewel has to offer. A break from the hustle and bustle of city life was truly what we needed and as we walked along the narrow streets each day going from tailors to shoes to bags we would stop off at one of the many restaurants for a break. Everyone here is still ...

An early start this morning for quite a long trip to Hoi An. Have to cover about 280 kms which does not sound far but the roads are poorly maintained here and travel is slow. We were looking forward to today as this part of the trip covered the jungle and the mountains of the infamous and ingenious Ho Chi Minh trail. As an avid reader of books relating to the American – Vietnam War this area was of particular interest to me as I would finally get to see in ...

Getting out of our hotel was a joy after a terrible night only lightened by the consumption of whisky. We are getting heartily sick to death of this tour. We paid an exorbitant rate and have been scammed badly – everyday seems to bring yet another nasty surprise which is such a pity. Vietnam is trying to build itself as a prime tourist destination in South East Asia but when people are confronted with such poor service and when you tell them they just don&#...

I have decided to do a separate blog about Christmas in Vietnam as it has been such a surreal experience. Firstly I have to point out that most Vietnamese people do not celebrate Christmas – it is mainly celebrated by the minority groups many of whom are Catholic. Therefore as we were travelling through the Central Highlands which is the area predominated by minority groups we got to see firsthand how they celebrate. We had seen some decorations in Thu Dau...

Awoke on Christmas morning in this ****** hotel with no breakfast thinking the day could only get better. The only alleviation of our misery was when I donned my golden bling Christmas hat and wished Tanya a Merry Christmas!!! Prepare ourselves for the days touring........given that we were charged 20% extra for the Christmas holiday you would think our guide would wish us a Merry Christmas....but OH NO it was business as usual. Headed to the Buon Ma Thuot ethn...