Motor biking, mountains and avalanches A great three days in the Mia Chau area up in the mountains. I've met the friendliest locals and backpackers of my whole trip around here. we've stayed in a home stay in the rice paddies where we cycled through the local markets and spent 3 days motorbiking through the amazing scenery that ranged from lakes and waterfalls to pointy peaked mountains. We ate with the locals in a bamboo house where we tried fried crickets (nic...

Just another city... I think not! We left Cat Ba island for Hanoi today which was going to a one night stop over and we were then going to head to Sapa famous for its rice fields and beautiful landscape covered in mountains. We arrived in Hanoi and proceeded with an Austrian girl we had met on Cat Ba to the hostel which was lucky because the forms were full and they only had a three bed room left! We then walked around the hostel which is the best place we stay...

Floating mountains in Halong: So today we had another boat trip with the great Asia outdoors team who took us for a day of rock climbing in Halong bay. The bay is full of tall islands and at the base of the islands the water erosion gives the appearance of a floating mountain, spectacular. We saw more of the area and got to do a load of climbing and descending on some pretty high walls. After this we went back to find a hotel as our one we had been staying at ...

When three became two: Today is Joel's last day with us so we thought we'd do something special before three became two. We rented 125 auto bikes for three hours which is the most highly recommended way to see the island and it's beauty at a cheap cost with lots of fun. We decided to do it here because of how quiet the roads are, and at a cost of 60,000dong (about £2) it was well worth it. All went well accept for Joel's little scuff but we saw scenery that wou...

Kayaking in halong bay: Today was a great day of kayaking, boat trips and lots of diving and swimming. If you have lunch included on a boat activity it just seems to be a big buffet it's great. We kayaked through caves, found secret beaches and trekked into an island or two. Halong Bay is incredible I recommend it to anyone. Little bit of a late night with a few back packers from England (first other English we've met) but not to late as tomorrow we are rock cli...