We spent a few more days back in Hanoi before leaving Vietnam. We went to the Water Puppet Theatre, this is a Vietnamese tradition. The puppeteers stand in the water and control the puppets from behind a screen. The tickets cost nearly nothing and it was really good, and some of the scenes were even quite funny. We visited the Women’s museum about women’s involvement in the war, which included fighting for the Viet cong and hiding Viet Cong soldiers ...

The overnight train to Hanoi was really good, I felt like I was travelling in Luxury (well compared to the bus). You get a little room with 2 bunk beds in and you get your dinner served in your room. I really like Hanoi so far, it's got a cafe culture and you could almost believe you were in France when you are in some of them. The first day we went around Hoan Kiem lake in the old quarter of Hanoi, it is surprisingly peaceful (amid all the traffic, millions of m...

We spent a few days in Hue it's one of the main places to stop off on the way up north. We went to the Citadel after having walked around the entire moat area looking for the entrance. The old imperial palace had huge red pillars with big gold dragons painted over it. The surrounding grounds were quite dirty though and there wasn't really that much to see there. We visited the cathedral which was in a European style and had beautiful stain glass windows, we could...

We stayed 2 nights in Hoi An and had a great time, I loved it here. The private bus tickets here are so cheap so we went by bus to Hoi An. On the way the wheel of the bus got a puncture some how and obviously they don't carry a spare, so we stopped in the middle of no where to get it fixed. In total it was a 17 hour bus journey! I asked the bus attendant if there were any toilets near by, he gestured to the floor by the bus with a big grin on his face, I thought ...

Mui Ne Beach is 4 hours from Saigon. I thought I'd like to be on the beach for my birthday and spent the day sitting on the beach a few metres from my hotel room door relaxing in the beautiful sunshine and warm sea (are you jealous yet?) but I did get stung on the butt by a jelly fish which wasn't such a good birthday present, the stinging only lasted half an hour!! Thank you for all the birthday messages everyone, it was strange being away for my birthday. Mui N...