You may have already guessed by the lack of recent blog activity who's turn it is to write a blog. However this time it hasn't been due to sheer laziness, but more so that my role of being Head of Logistics has taken precedent, since transport in China is a challenge to say the least (but not for the reasons you would expect). Anyway that's a another story, for another time, in a later blog. So Sapa, apparently one of the coldest places in Vietnam, is most easil...

Hanoi was broken up into 3 parts because we did 2 excursions from there and then came back to explore Hanoi. The first excursion was a trip to Halong Bay, the eighth wonder of the world and a UNESCO world heritage sight but probably most famous for that Top Gear show in Vietnam where they turned their bikes into boats to go on the water in Halong Bay. Everyone says a trip here is a must and it's difficult and no cheaper to attempt it yourself so we booked a tour ...

I've been given the lovely task of writing about Hanoi since Bryan only likes to write nice things and so he has little to write about for Hanoi! After the all the traffic madness of Saigon we were dreading what Hanoi might be like, assuming it would be worse since it's the capital city. Although it was still crazy by most people's standards, it wasn't quite as bad as Saigon. Having said that, I was still petrified of crossing the road and pretty much had to ju...

Apparently the beaches around the Vietnamese coast are pretty awesome and after the craziness of Saigon we welcomed some beaches. Fortunately for us, despite it being rainy season in Saigon it is actually still summer in Nha Trang. Deal! There are actually mega cheap and comfortable tourist sleeper buses that go up and down the country. You can buy an open bus ticket for about $35 and stop off at any of the main tourist destinations then just get back on when yo...

After a slightly chaotic, disorganised but otherwise smooth overland border crossing from Cambodia to Vietnam, our first stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) or Saigon as most people still call it. This was where our bus from Cambodia took us and since it's so far south it was a good place to start and then work our way up north. When I looked out the bus window at some point, after being engrossed on a game on my iPhone for a couple of hours, I was surp...