A two day stop-over in Seoul has exceeded our expectations. We stayed in a perfectly located bed and breakfast where we could walk through the narrow streets of traditional Korean homes and eat some delicious Korean food. We also strolled through two large palace complexes dating back to the 1400's. They both occupy big tracts of land which open large historic and picturesque areas in the middle of busy downtown Seoul. Insadong, a quaint antique shopping street ...

Wow! What a spectacular ending to our 3 days in Halong Bay! We have been blown away by the beauty of these endless islands which are similar, yet so different. We feel so fortunate to have been on the 3 day cruise which got us away from the crowds of people on shorter cruises and into a serene environment where we saw only a few other boats and were able to experience the serenity of these karsts which emerge from the sea in varying shapes and sizes. After a grea...

After another overnight train ride from Sapa, followed by a 3 1/2 hour drive from Hanoi, we arrived in the famous Halong Bay - another World Heritage site with 1,969 picturesque rocky islands. As you can see from the photo, the weather is misty, adding a mysterious air to the bay. The highlight of the afternoon was a kayak trip off our beautiful but modern junk, exploring several caves in the limestone formations and enjoying the peacefulness of the area.

Bac Ha - one of the most amazing markets we have seen anywhere! Bac Ha has a market day once a week and five of the local tribal groups meet there to sell everything from water buffalo, horses, dogs (which will grow up to become dinner), pigs ( we watched as one was strapped on the back of a motor bike to get a ride to its new home!), fruits and vegetables, and a wicked corn whiskey. It was teeming with people with the women wearing colourful and beautifully deco...

After a sleepless overnight train ride, we arrived in Sapa, a mountainous town in the northwest of Vietnam, close to the Chinese border which is the home of numerous ethnic minority groups. We were surprised by the number of women on the street wearing traditional costumes - more than we have seen elsewhere. The women are all very friendly and all want to sell you some of their handicrafts. We walked through several of their villages and were struck by how basi...