Arrived in Vietnam in small town on Chau Doc just over the border in the afternoon, dumped our bags and jumped on back of moto's for ride up Sam Mountain. Afternoon rain had just kicked in so my driver pulled over to get me a poncho then we went racing up the mountain to catch up with everyone. Rain had stopped by time we reached the top and we laid on hammocks to watch an amazing sunset over Vietnam & Cambodia in the distance.
Did some shopping in Capital city Saigon's markets, picked up some bargains after bit of haggling and wandered around the city. Has dinner at street market and went to Kareoke club where we had our own private room and even i belted out a little number, thankfully there's not really a good singer among us so i like to thinkit wasnt too painful for everyone else!
Arrived in Nha Trang early after overnight train ride and set of for mineral mud springs. Had fun relaxing day slipping about in the mud baths & swimming in mineral pools. Had really fun night out where ended up in a club on the beach dancing on the sand under the stars, followed by a late night/early morning dip in the hotel pool when we got back!
Next stop was town called HoiAn which i really liked, so relaxed & happy everywhere & good to get out the hustle of the cities for a bit. Drivers are crazy in the cities as it's a case of whoever has the biggest car gets priority! Famous for tailor shops here so lots of group got some cheap suits & dresses made. Went on a river boat cruise to watch the sunset and the driver called me over to take the wheel or whatever it's called on a boat! Had another briliant night at this bar which at midnight transports everyone down to the beach, had 20 odd people crammed into a 9seater mini bus! Drunk by the bucket load (literally, buckets of drink standard everywhere in SE Asia!) & rum is actually cheaper than coke so tend to fill drink up with more alcohol than mixer! Everyone ended up swimming in the sea and one of our group never made it back til sunrise after falling asleep on the beach! I went on back of moto next morning for driver through countryside & out to this secluded beach which had a couple of beach huts & only a handful of locals on the beach with their fishing boats, so peaceful and beauitful. In afternoon, pooled some money together to get some food from market and took it to the local orphange to hand out which felt really good. Lots of the kids have learning disabilities and when turn 16 have to leave orphange which means a lot end up on street but a local guy Tien owns a restaurant and employs and trains kids from the orphange & he's also trying to set up a half way house to help get them into work etc but there's no government funding, it's all reliant on charity. Had dinner in Tien's restaurant in evening.
Took 4hr drive to Hue via Hai Van Pass which was the road they drove along in Top Gear Vietnam episode! not much cop on a bus but amazing views and would've been a lot of fun in something faster! Visited Citadel Forbidden City and went to a locals backstreet cafe serving Cay...aka dog! Tried it steamed, grilled and in noodle soup! Grilled was best but it's pretty tough so i wont be re-ordering it!
Travelled 16hrs to get to Halong Bay where we were due to get a private junk boat out around the thousand odd limestone islands in the sea, meant to be a highlight of Vietnam & everyone was really looking forward to it but Typhoon due to hit so the ports closed and we only have that one day here before we go to Hanoi, gutted but what can you do.

Typhoon ended up being pretty bad on coast, i dont know if it would have made news back home but was called Typhoon Conson and hit China & Phillipines before Vietnam & killed quite few people. We missed most of it as we'd moved inland to Hanoi so had calmed down by time hit us, so just had a lot of wind and rain, kind of wish we'd seen it when it was more spectaular as would've been a slight consolation to missing the boat trip!

Went on another moto tour from Hanoi, out around rice fields, elephant & tiger colloseum, karate school and tried my hand at incense stick making - discovered i'm pretty damn good and they put my ones into the pile to sell.

Half group are finishing the tour now so it's last night for some, will be pretty sad when they leave as had a lot of fun but there's still 7 of us carrying on to Laos & 4 new people joining.