Gosh it was cool when we arrived in Hanoi and it was real hat and gloves weather.  This is apparently typical, although it did warm up nicely as the week went on.  Hanoi was really great.  We loved the narrow, busy, motorbike-filled streets (and got really adept at weaving our way across the roads!) and the hustle and bustle of street sellers and shops full of everything.  We stayed in the old town, which is the most interesting part of the ci...

Just arrived in Hue by bus from Dalat to Nha Trang then overnight train. Update soon! Hue is renowned for it's wet weather and it's own peculiar climate, and it certainly rained while we were there.  However, it's also renowned as the ancient and royal capital of Vietnam.  After HCMC and Dalat we enjoyed getting back into some culture and less recent history. The Citadel and, more significantly, the Purple Forbidden City ...

Stopped for a couple of days in Dalat, a small town in the Central Highlands. It was a refreshing change from Ho Chi Min City, not just in terms of size but also climate (cooler and less humid but still lovely and warm) and topography (set in a mountain landscape, it reminded us a lot of the Italian lakes).  It's very famous in Vietnam for its strawberries and strawberry jam.  It's also known for it's wine.  We sampled all three and can...

Pretty good bus journey from Phnom Penh took us to the border at Bavet on the Cambodian side.   The nearer the border we got the more prosperous Cambodia appeared to be - probably because of the many casinos (loads more being built) for the Vietnamese to come over the border to gamble and spend their money.HCMC (which the locals still call Saigon) was our first taste of a really big city since China and is significantly more westernised (but in a far ea...