Hong Kong seemed such a modern city after some of the places we've been to recently. The public ransport system is great and it's so easy to get around and English is far more widely spoken than in the rest of China. Perhaps because of these things it means Hong Kong isn't quite as interesting as Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, for example we didn't see a single duck, chicken or pig on a motorbike, coming to think of it, there wern't many motorbikes! It is a nice sto...

First we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, so much quieter and less chaotic than the big cities of Vietnam. We didn't have much time but visited a few of the sights in the city, Wat Phnom, the National museum and the Royal Palace, seeing many landmine victims begging along the way. By far the most interesting places but also the most horrific were the Killing Fields and Prison S-21, but they are places that must be seen to try and understand what th...

The 10 hour train journey to Nha Trang was through a lot of rural countryside and we passed miles and miles of paddy fields. Those that were ripe were being harvested, again all by hand. The day after arriving in Nha Trang it poured with rain but a boat trip had already been arranged. We still went, well equipped with rain coats. It was a bit of a shame really as we'd been looking forward to doing some snorkelling. The following day was brilliant sunshine so we w...

After arriving in Hue we went around the Royal Citadel, the former home of Vietnam's royal family. The following day we had a trip up the Perfume river to the Thien Mieu Pagoda before going out into the countryside on the back of motorbikes, thankfully the roads were quieter than in Hanoi! We stopped at villages along the way seeing how they make incense sticks, the iconic Vietnamese conical hats and other handicrafts. We saw rice being harvested in the paddies b...

We had one free day in Hanoi before joining our Intrepid Tour group. We had lunch with Morris and a few of his friends there before having a quick look around the military museum and Temple of Literature. Our group was 12 people in total, a mixture of Australians, Brits and one American with a Vietnamese guide, Hahn. For our first group meal we ate out at a non-profit restaurant that trains street kids and disadvantaged children in the hospitality industry to ena...