"Todie prugrem, eat dha bee quest, an dhen, chekking indhe ferrets"! Translation: Today's program after eating breakfast will be trekking in the forest. Our Ha Long Bay tour guide had the full attention of the whole group. HANOI The capital city was to be our base for a number of activities in the north of the country that would take us the best part of a week. We were initially excited about our arrival in yet another Asian capital as the other ma...

...so how much have we spent today?? Can we afford a Snickersâ„¢???" Lj fully gets to grips with back-packing budget priorities. HOI AN After three hours in yet another over peopled mini bus, followed by 15 hair raising minutes on the back of a motorbike taxi, we arrived in the attractive little town of Hoi An. An old merchant trading town, recently awarded world heritage status, and it is the compelling sense of history in the mellow streets of this...

"Hello, welcome to our hotel. We can arrange many things for your convenience, travel tickets, city tours, restaurant & laundry............also, please use our gun shooting service." We were given a hearty welcome by the manager at our Saigon hotel. SAIGON From our previous journies to and through Cambodia, we were not overly excited about the 8-10 hour bus trip over the Vietnam border to Saigon. This proved to be totally unfounded as, to our amazemen...