LAOS VIENTIANE As soon as we arrive in Laos we see that it is noticeably more peaceful and chilled out than anywhere we have been previously, possibly more chilled out that anywhere on the planet - OK so we haven't been everywhere on the planet (yet) but this place must be a contender. Everywhere we look there are people asleep in their pickups/tuk tuks and the capital city is little more than a dusty town from what we can see. We check in a the hotel and aft...

HANOI AND HALONG BAY We catch the overnight train to Hanoi which isn't one of our better train journeys but isn't too bad overall... when we arrive we are met at the station by one of the guys from our hostel, which turns out to be run by the most mercenary guys on the planet. Before we are allowed to check in he is selling us a tour to Halong Bay only when we finally firmly say we want to go to our room and take a shower before we do anything else does h...

HUE We took the bus up to Hue which was only 5 hrs taking in some scenic views on the way. No hassle with this or checking into the hostel, which again was a really high standard for the price. Hue is a small pleasant city with a river and a citadel and many temples and pagodas in and around the city, so there is a lot to see and do in a just a few days. We decide to take a boat tour of the various temples as there are so many to see spread out over a pretty wide...

HOI AN – New Year’s EveAfter our very tiring one hour journey north we were a bit gutted to find huge black clouds in the sky when we landed at Danang and by the time we got dropped at our hotel in HoiAn it was absolutely pouring it down – a bit of a change from the constant sun we have now become accustomed to. Plus this was a bit of a pain as we had booked into a ‘real’ hotel rather than a hostel (little new year treat to ourselves...

VIETNAMHO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON) So we finally shook off the Christmas and Boxing Day hangovers and dragged ourselves off the beach to catch a bus headed for HCMC. It wasn’t too bad a journey – only 14 hours with a couple of hours in Phnom Penh at the 'Green Vespa' bar by the river for lunch, but we arrived in the dark which is always interesting but particularly so when your arriving at what is supposed to be the thieving capital of Vietnam! ...