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...

A short hop south of Hanoi and Halong Bay, Ninh Binh province is blessed with breathtaking natural beauty. ...Which, once we'd recovered from our epic and rather successful typhoon escape, we rather enjoyed. Ninh Binh itself is a rather industrial city, but a good base for exploring the quintessentially Vietnamese limestone scenery.We biked it out (with drivers...such a good idea, as it is a long way and a hard drive) to the nature reserve, through what can ...

Well, we'd planned to spend three days in Son Trach -- the gateway to Phong Nah-Ke Bang National Park, and an hour and $25! away from Dong Hoi train station -- trekking and exploring its vast selection of caves...however... This was not to be our fate...What? Another Typhoon?!Casually going across road to the only backpacker style restaurant in sight, to find out about excursions, we were refer to the local trip expert. We eagerly laid out exactly what we ho...