HO CHI MINH- PHU QUOC ISLAND We stayed in Ho chi Minh only over night, as we were told it was busier than Hanoi, however when we arrived the city appeared to be quite beautiful, well maintain and much more orderly than Hanoi ( there's my control issues again!) We stayed in district 1, and the shops we passed on our walk mirrored Melbourne in many ways- so maybe we were in the affluent area of town so our perception of HCMC is a little warped. We had dinner at a ...

DALAT The Highlands of Dalat we were looking forward to investigating. This city is surprising large, and productive, as its known as the flower and vegetable capital of Vietnam. Around 1500m altitude, it was not cold. Acres and acres of mountainous valleys were adorned with hot houses, veggie gardens- as far as the eye could see. Dalat is also home to the famous hand embroidery village- which we didn't find out about until after we'd left!! Bummer- cos their wo...

HUE- HOI AN-DALAT After our horrendous experience on the sleeping bus we decided to hire a driver to take us the 4 hrs to Hoi An. Trai was an awesome guy who shared with of us much of his culture and beliefs and opinions about Vietnam and its communist political party- an openness rarely witnessed as there are great penalties for speaking against the government. Acquiring a private driver also meant that we got to stop along the way and visit a few sights like, ...

NINH BINH- HUE The journey to Hue wasn't one of the highlights of this trip. We spent 14hrs on a sleeping bus- which sounds great in theory but believe me was far from enjoyable! We must have booked the budget version and didn't realize- half the seats were broken, people were sleeping in the very narrow walkways, it was stinking hot and packed with about 40 back packers!! In 14hrs we stopped twice- so yes that is a very long painful time when you are busting to...

TAM COC (Three Caves) This morning we were woken by the hustle and bustle of the local market at 5am, as the villagers gather together to sell their wares and purchase the food for the week. Cabbage and carrot is a lunch time staple, plus a multitude of unrecognizable carcasses were also available for the early risers. One of the highlights here is the boat trip along the river that meanders between the stony limestone karsts through- you guessed it- three cave...