Hanoi...its the city that wont let you leave... After many tired and failed attempts we are laving Hanoi this evening (fingers crossed) to fly down to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The onset of typhoons heading to the Vietnam coast changed our plans a little so we are heading South and inland. Emma went to the water puppet show here in Hanoi and I drank some Bia Hoi, the local home brew that is about 18p a glass. They have a very interesting concept of road rules i...

Well...we are back in Hanoi after a hasty retreat from Cat Ba Island due to Typhoon Ketsana hitting the coast of Vietnam. Cat Ba is beautiful (it looks like the Jurassic Park island - without the dinosuars!). We spent a few days on the beach and riding around the island on motorbikes. Not sure where we are headed from here :) Love Rich x

We have headed to the coast after a day in Hanoi to a little place called Hai Phong and in the morning we will be getting the high speed boat to Cat Ba Island for some relaxing on the beach. This place is really cool, we have just had an evening meal that cost 60p each, and included fried maggots....yes thats right maggots, which were pretty tasty. Last night we feasted on lemongrass and chilli snails. Its kinda cool when taxi's are motor bikes and they race each...

Hey everyone,We arrived in Vietnam yesterday after another long overnight bus ride and a very thorough border crossing :) We are in a beautiful place called Sapa in the North Vietnamese mountians, very quiet and very traditional. Tomorrow we are going on a trek to some villages to Lao Chai village, Ta Van village (to meet the Dzay people - a "minority" tribe) and have lunch with a family. Then a bamboo forest walk to Giang Ta Cahi village to meet the R...

The Visa is rapidly running out, so we are really packing it in! We've been having a non-stop adventure... I'll try to get you all up to speed. We stayed in a place named Xingping, on the Li River, home to the scenery printed on the 20 Yuan note; Beautiful! We went night fishing with a local fisherman and his cormerants. The next day we made our way down the Li river on a bamboo raft, followed by a trip to a mud cave! Crazy fun, there was a slide into this 'na...