On day 28, 20th July we visited Hue (Phoung's hometown).  This place is very different to Hanoi, for starters it's a lot easier to cross the road - sounds like a minor thing but it really makes a difference.  Whilst there, we visited the Royal Palace which was once home to 13 emperors and their 500 concubines, wives and children.  It's surrounded by a 10km wall which is 2m thick (complete with plenty of bullet holes).  Unfortunatel...

Wednesday 18th of July saw our trip take us to Halong Bay. We stepped out of our air conditioned minibus into the humid 36 °C sweltering heat. A good day to be on the cool sea. The port was lined… actually jam packed with boats, 3 rows deep all trying to frantically manouever themselves into position. Just as we saw on the roads with the cars and bikes, we also saw with the boats. No giving way, forcing their way through and of course beeping their hor...

Well here goes the first of the Vietnam blogs, our first destination being the capital, Hanoi. We didn’t have very long here just a day and a half separated by a day and night at Halong Bay. Wow what a hectic place. I thought our senses had taken a lot in Malaysia & Thailand but this was even more intense. It began upon leaving the airport. As soon as we walked through the doors we were mobbed by taxi drivers grabbing our bags, gesturing to their c...

Day’s 18-22 were spent in Chiang Mai (CM) and near Chiang Dao.  Overall CM is a lot cooler and greener than Bangkok, although in CM city this is not the case.  In fact a lot of Asian people choose to take their holidays here to escape the heat and get out of the city.  On our second day here we were picked up by our local guide, Tan, and taken by open air truck about an hour out of the city to our trek starting point. Along the way we stopped...

On Day 15 of our trip we arrived in Bangkok after a 14 hour overnight train journey.  During which we were awoken by women selling all kinds of spicy foods for breakfast at 5am – the second time in less than a week. For the last night of our Colours of Asia tour we stayed near Khao San Road in the west of the city – a haven for backpackers and famous for it’s hippy market.  Day 1 in Bangkok, saw us taking a long tail boat down the mudd...