Hue - We spent the day in Hanoi when we arrived back from Sapa, again arriving early morning since we caught the night train. We went to see a temple in the middle of one of Hanoi's lakes and then ran some errands, brought a photocopy of the lonely planet to Australia, posted some postcards, etc. That evening we were to catch our third night train from Hanoi to Hue, once known as the religious capital of Vietnam. The night train down was pretty much event free,...

So then Sapa. We had to get a sleeping night train up to Lao Cai and then catch a mini bus to Sapa. The night train was our first of the trip so far and took us about 9 hours, I think it is safe to say that if our budget allowed it we would take them over buses everyday of the week. Much more comfortable than buses and able to get a lot more decent sleep. Although the air conditioning was not great so it was a little clammy. Then out of no where came a knocking a...

Hello again. Well since I last wrote we have been to Halong Bay (east of Hanoi) and Sapa (north of Hanoi). First we took an organised trip down to Halong Bay, where we would stay 2 nights, one on the boat and the other on Cat Ba island. The journey was an adventure on it's own. The vehicles seem to have free reign toovertake when ever they like just as long as they beep their horn loud enough. Weaving in and out of the traffic in a 52 seater was scary, so best ju...

19.10.2011 Morning - Well the flight was good. We ended up booking our flight to Hanoi with Laos Airlines, we had a choice of either Laos or Vietnam Airlines, the only 2 who did that route, so we went with the cheapest. Glad we did too! When we arrived at the airport we noticed that the Laos Airlines flight took off at the same time as the Vietnam Airlines flight, which we thought was strange as there could surely they could not have 2 planes take off at the same...

Hi all. I think I am going to have to start to summarise these blogs a little more as I am struggling to keep up to date. Done so much since my last blog, could write another 4 blogs. Well after leaving Luang Prabang we went to Vang Vieng, where it's all about the tubing. For those who do not know what this is it is basically floating down a river on a tyre, stoping off at the many bars on the way down to grab drink and usually a free shot of whiskey. There is a...