Ok, so the boat journey wasn't quite what we were expecting. Apart from waking up with a temperature of 101.3 degrees and having to brave travelling none-the-less, so as to not miss the opportunity to sail*, the "slow boat" was remarkably fast and considerably smaller that the canal-like barges we were expecting. In actual fact, we were crammed onto two low benches running the length of the narrow boat; and for the next four hours interchanged between a state...

Well we finally made it into Laos after our mammoth bus journey! And we are exhausted.After a ten-hour (and excessively bumpy...it appears the road is still being built) overnight sleeper-bus, arriving in Dien Bien Phu at four in the morning, we reluctantly hopped straight onto yet another bus to take us over the boarder and on to Muang Khua.  It's a picturesque route but we'd been warned not to make the trip in hops as you risk getting stranded part wa...

In the small northern town of Sapa there is a story of a French pastry baker. It is said that he became frustrated with baking in the heat and humidity of Vietnam, unable to get his pastries to raise right or attain the right qualities to his ingredients. One day he wondered into the hills to find a climate more similar to his Alpine home and found himself is Sapa, almost believing he was back in his home town. He soon settled down, bought a shop and started his...

We stayed in the labyrinthine streets of the Old Quarter -- truly, without David-Nav I would have been completely lost -- where you can supposedly experience Asia at its raw and pulsating best. Although, to be honest, the constant ebb and flow of motorbikes and pedestrians through the centuries-old commercial chaos, was a little much for me. Only in a few rest-bite-moments did I chance to look up, where there is some elegant old architecture in and amongst said c...

After much debate, and many a recommendation from fellow travelers, we decided to try to do the infamous Halong Bay, without actually doing Halong Bay. With an isolated and off-the-beaten-track appeal (and far fewer visitors), the rugged, craggy and jungle-clad Cat Ba Island turned out to be a little gem. Cat Ba town itself is really laid back, and proved to be an excellent base (after waiting out the rain) for kayaking around Lan Ha Bay (Asia Outdoors, based i...