Our journey from Cambodia to Vietnam was quite symbolic of the difference between the two countries - we left Phnom Penh in Cambodia in a knackered, dirty old school bus which broke down after an hour or so and crawled the rest of the way at 20 mph with smoke billowing out of the engine and someone throwing water on it from time to time to cool it down.. At the border we crossed on foot into Vietnam where we were picked up by a spanking new, airconditioned minbus complete with 'hostess' to tell us all about Vietnam. It is definitately a much more developed & richer country.Our first stop was Ho Chi Minh City (used to be Saigon) which is the largest in Vietnam and is a very hectic place. Crossing the road is literally like dicing with death as there are 4 million motorbikes in the city all driving around at the same time, and 20 people a day are killed in the city as a result. From Ho Chi Minh we did a really good tour of the Cu Chi tunnels - dug by the Vietnamese communists during the American war for fighters to move around undetected and avoid attacks from the enemy. There is a section of the tunnels that has been widened by 30 cm to make it possible for tourists to go through the underground and see what it was like - absolutely tiny! We had to crawl through on our hands and knees and this is after they've been widened! It was so hot and very claustrophobic, unbelievable to think that the Viet Cong spent weeks at a time down there. I wouldn't last an hour.Whilst in Ho Chi Minh we also discovered Bia Hoi - the Vietnamese beer sold in the local style eateries, which themselves can be anything from someone's front room with a couple of tables in it to some children's garden furniture laid out in the street and food served from a metal pot. These places serve great traditional food as well as this incredibly cheap beer - about 10p a pint! So this is becoming our standard way of eating as my funds begin to dwindle, and is much more atmospheric than the endless tourist restaurants.After Ho Chi Minh City we visited a couple of fun beach towns, one of which was having a new moon festival where the school kids paraded through the streets with paper lanterns. It looked amazing and as we were among only a handful of tourists there we got a lot of attention from the children wanting to practice their English and have their photos taken.The second beach town was more of a party place and we had a lot of fun with some Canadians we had met on a tour. Kat - we of course went to the Sailing Club, where my only pair of shoes (apart from my sensible walking shoes) were stolen when I foolishly took them off. I should have learnt my lesson after this happened to Sarah twice in Central America. Pretty frustrating at this stage in the trip! Anyway, it was a fun evening with the only other mystery being why we woke up with a custard apple on the top of the toilet..?The next stop was Hoi An... very very risky  as this is the shopping capital of South East Asia - hundreds of tailors ready to make clothes to order at ridiculously cheap prices. As well as the shopping it is probably the nicest place we have been in Vietnam. It is a very beautiful, unspoilt town which is protected by UNESCO and full of pretty little streets with original 18th century shop fronts and a lot of Chinese influence. It also has some of the best food we have had so far - our favourite is a spicy pork noodle dish bought for us in the market by a lady trying to persuade us to have a pedicure.. it worked!We did of course venture into the tailors as well and my rucksack is considerably heavier as a result. We eventually left Hoi An and are now in Hanoi, the capital for a few days. As with Cambodia, it has been really interesting learning more about the recent history of the country and getting an idea of what they have been through. We will be leaving here in about 5 days time for Laos, my final country!x