Hey all!10/12/2007 - We had an early start in Saigon, having arrived in the city at 6.30 in the morning on the overnight bus. We had a little wander round trying to find a cheap hostel to stay in and eventually found one in the backpaper area of Pham Ngu Lao. We grabbed some breakfast before heading off to the Reunification Palace - this was formerly the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace until tank No.843 (now parked outside in the palace garden) came through ...

5/12/2007 - Having arrived in Hue for no more than 10 minutes, the heavens opened and there was a torrential downpour that would last all day and night! We quickly found a hostel and chose the cheapest of the 2 rooms available (a decision that would soon come and bite us on the bum!). We spent the day walking around the City in the pouring rain, exploring the historical attractions such as the Citadel, the old Emperor's Palace and some Vietnam War shrapnel. By lu...

Hey all! 2/12/2007 - On the Sunday morning, we left Hanoi to head out on a 3 day/2 night excursion to Ha Long Bay, which is famous for its rock formations. We were greeted by an very friendly Vietnamese by the name of Duon (we adopted 'Tim' as his new name while we were out with him) and he was accompanying us as our tour guide for the next few days. Upon reaching the harbour, it dawned on us that Ha Long Bay was becoming a sight-seers haven, with about 250+ boat...

30/11/2007 - At bloody last! Today we ended the infamous bus ride from Vang Vieng, via Vientiane, to Hanoi in Vietnam. Left at 10am Thurs 29th Nov; arrived Fri 30th 10pm - total journey time: 36 hours!!! You can imagine how exhausted, achey, smelly and hungry we were by the end of the trip. It was meant to be the VIP bus, and it seemingly started off well when we noticed the apparent lack of fellow passengers except for two Americans and some local Vietnamese. Ho...

Up early on Monday to find our tuk tuk waiting to take us to the bus station where we piled into the minvan that would take us to Vang Vieng. It was an uncomfortable 5 hours with Leanna and Nikki up front with the driver and zak packed in behind on a small fold down seat, but the scenery was beautiful as we passed through hillside villages and the mountains in Laos. When we arrived we found ourselves a riverside bungalow for a bargain price of 6 dollars a night a...