Wednesday 15th March
An 8 hour bus journey from Phnom Phen to Saigon/Ho Chi Min in Vietnam today so by the time we arrived after a ridiculously stressful time at the border crossing we we low on time and energy so just hunted out some accommodation down the cheap back alleys, booked our onward travel and found a restaurant for dinner that to Adams absolute delight served Mexican food, it was damn good Mexican food too and after a feast of chili chicken chimichangas we turned in for an early night watching trashy American films on the few English channels available.

Thurs 16th March
We spent the morning visiting the amazing and terrible tunnels of Cu Chi. It is astounding what the Viet Cong withstood inside the tunnels with unimaginably cramped conditions and absolutely no modern amenities yet they still went on to defeat "the American Devils" (as you can see, they're not bitter!!) In fact the Americans never new what hit them, most the time the never even saw the Viet Cong just watched their men and vehicles being picked of by them with stealth soldiers seemingly invisible hiding under ground and horrific bamboo bobby traps littering the forest.
We spent the afternoon window shopping around Saigon's amazing tailors shops that litter the streets and sampling the beer Vietnam had to offer.

Fri 17th March
Today was spent journeying to Dalat. Unfortunately what should have been about a 4 hour journey turned into almost 12 hours after our bus hit a motorbike with pillion. )apparently there are 800,000 RTA's every year in Vietnam)The driver of the bike wasn't paying attention and didn't spot the bus till we had nearly finished passing him, just at the point he was next to my window he jumped out of his skin and panicked steering in to the side of the bus, losing control at which point I had the unfortunate view of watching him disappear under the back wheels of the bus!!
When we checked to see if he was alive his breath stank of alcohol so the stupid man was clearly drunk, but breathing at least. Sadly for our bus driver as he was in charge of a larger vehicle he is immediately at fault and hours of standing around awaiting ambulances and police and watching their ridiculous attempts at crash scene investigation saw the minutes turn to hours, and hours, and hours until eventually a minivan arrived to squeeze the nine passengers from the bus, all our luggage, approximately 100 bottles of drinking water and 1000 toilet rolls and struggled the final two hours to Dalat.
When we eventually arrived we only had enough energy for food, showers and sleep after hours of waiting around in the scorching heat.

Saturday18th March
After a rare morning of waking up without the sound of an alarm shrieking in our our ears we spent a lovely morning walking to and around Dalats flower gardens and central market crammed with locals selling everything from knitted cardigans to live fish.

Sunday 19th March
An awesome day zooming around the stunning mountain roads of Dalat on the back of super comfortable motorbikes with two of Dalt's "easy riders" They were both absolutely lovely and very knowledgeable. We saw flower farms, silk factory, rice wine making, beautiful pagoda, coffee farms, got lost on a "romantic" walk, stopped at numerous stunning view points and visited the most stunning Elephant Waterfall. The waterfall had a bit of a treacherous climb to the bottom but boy it was worth it.......amazing and so refreshingly cool when the spray hits your face after the difficult climb down!!! We had lunch in a very local restaurant where we payed a third of the cost of any other meal we have had for the both of us and the food was delicious.
We were dropped off by Bang and Mai at about 4 pm and hugged then goodbye before going in to our guest house for an unscheduled afternoon nap dreaming of our lovely day in the mountains : - )

Monday 20th March
6 hours and thankfully uneventful bus journey to Nha Trang on the coast today. The scenery was incredible as our bus wound its way up and down the mountain passes. We arrived in the afternoon so just spent the rest of the day getting to know the area, wondering around and booking onward travel etc. In the evening we watched a huge storm surround us on all sides and from the terrace outside our room saw more lightning in ten minutes than we have in our entire life, it was awesome!!

Tuesday 21st March
No4 Boat trip........an AWESOME day!!! All day at sea cruising between three islands off the coast, Vietnam's biggest aquarium (which is smaller than the sealife centre at rock o nore), the most incredible snorkeling around live coral reefs teeming with beautiful fish, a wonderful buffet lunch of spring rolls, noodles, soup, prawns, omelet and more. They even had a floating bar which was in reality a man in a rubber ring handing out booze from his lap but it was bloody brilliant. The boats crew were so much fun and entertained us with singing, dancing and their wonderful humour, they took a shine to Adam and I and wouldn't let us be without a beer in our hands for a second!
The leisurely cruise back was complete with a huge fruit buffet with , mangoes, bananas, pineapple, lychee grapes, dragon fruit, apple pears and more and the whole day for a ridiculous $7 US.
Met a brilliant Irish couple, Gus and Edale on the boat and had dinner and evening drinks with them before waving then off on their night bus which we will be boarding tomorrow. We had so much fun we are Planning to meet them again in Hoi An.

Wednesday 22nd March
Recovering from yesterday, updating blog and a bit of beach time before we have to board the night bus for Hoi An.