After our Halong Bay trip we returned to the hotel we had stayed in before, only to find out they had forgotten to book us in again and were now fully booked. Fortunately the hotel next door had space. We wondered through Hanoi again and went for, what we had been informed was, the best pho (noodle and beef soup/stew) in the city. It was very tasty, as all the food we'd had so far was, but in our books it was still second to the pho in Saigon. After learning mor...

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...