The road to no-where? 9th January 2006 So far the longest bus journey Stu has ever done is certainly less than 10hours, more indeed like 8 on this trip. Thus I was filled with trepidation as we boarded the first minibus at 7pm on the 9th January. What would the main bus look like, would it be an air-conditioned double decked super bus with on-board 'air hostess' or what? Unfortunately as we arrived at the main bus station the reality hit us, it would be ...

Halong Bay & Cat Ba Island 7th January 2006 Another early morning to catch the bus at 7.30am to Halong Bay. There are 14 of us crammed into a minibus, but fortunately the journey was only 3 hours with a break in the middle (at a souvenir shop of course). We get to know some of the others in our group on the way. We also see several precariously loaded motorbikes, including one carrying what looked like a wardrobe and another carry several pigs (dead ...

Tuesday 3rd January Surely the idea of sleeper carriages on trains is that you actually should get some sleep. (I know radical isn't it?) Not necessarily so, one can lie down and even feel relatively comfortable despite the incessant light creeping out from under the door, the constant shaking and tilting and the noise coming from all quarters as the train winds it's way towards our destination (Lao Cai) high up in the mountains in the North of Vietnam. ...

31st December 2005 We feel like we have deserved our lie in this morning, especially as we had a relatively sleepless night with the bed creaking really badly and the hotel staff waking us up at 6am by shouting to one another through the hotel. We immediately notice that the traffic here is equally as bad as in Saigon with the one major difference - the streets in the old quater are much narrower than Saigon and although it gives the place much more chara...

Wednesday 28th December We get up and prepare to leave Hoi An. First things first though and we have to post the clothes and other stuff back home. At 12kg the parcel nearly weighs as much as one of our ruck-sacks. Me thinks that we may have gone a little bit crazy in this town. We are now used to the post office personnel rooting through our items (probably just to check that we are not sending illegal or items dangerous to the republic of Vietnam ou...