After some deliberation and seeking out much advice we had booked our trip to Halong Bay. A tourist mecca that we had been warned about, therefore we opted for the route less travelled, a boat trip from a different town, through halong bay, to an Eco island where we would spend the night. It had been raining in Hanoi for the past 4 days and so we held our breath that it would improve for our boat trip. Fortunately it did and there was not a cloud in the sky as w...

We had decided to try out the sleeper train as opposed to the bus and so we embarked on our 18 hour train journey at 18:40. We settled ourselves in with a few card games, a bit of reading and a dinner sandwich before hitting the sack. Luckily we had managed to bag a four bed cabin to ourselves for the first 14 hours. We were pleased when the train arrived in Hanoi at the advertised arrival time, and not whenever the driver felt like arriving. Sometimes Claire ma...

We were keen to avoid another night bus experience like the last, so we splashed out on a flight from Dalat to Hoi An. Hoi An is a coastal and riverside town, initially built around a port, but due to silt and sand deposits the port stopped functioning several years ago. It went through a period of poverty but now has built itself back up, on tourism. A very touristy but upmarket town. It has narrow streets with quaint old buildings and brightly coloured lanterns...

We had now officially finished our tour and were about to embark on our first journey ourselves. We'd opted for the sleeper bus option from Ho Chi Minh to Dalat, a less touristy town in the mountains. This would not only save wasting any days travelling but would also save valuable money on a night's accommodation. The journey was due to take 8 hours and we were booked on the 11pm bus, it was now 7pm, so we found a restaurant near the bus station and set ourselve...

It was time to leave Cambodia and embark on our second land border crossing. We had been warned that passing into Vietnam was a very corrupt system and we had managed to acquire a last minute visa through paying an underhand company in Cambodia. We were plied with free breakfast on the bus before the bus hostess took all of our passports. It was a four hour journey to the border. First stage was to get out of Cambodia, which was surprisingly easy, we were then bu...