Ho Chi Minh City!!!!! Formally Saigon... Motorbikes, high rise, sitting by the road side, dust, rain and noise..... Another crazy Asian big city, but like the rest of them, it has an originality, a mesmerising charm. And cockroaches. We checked into a very basic hostel right in the middle of the backpackers area. The main street is like a river,motorbikes like fish moving in and out of each other and dodging roadside stalls like they are big riverside rocks...

After spending a few days going from a bed to a toilet, it was quite a nice change to go from a bed to a bus.... The bus journey took us up and in land to the small and pretty town of Dalat. Again, the French influence is obvious and the fact that we were inland and slightly in the hills provided an almost European chill in the air. Night time felt like Christmas, with locals crowded around little street fires fully dressed in coats, gloves and hats, drinking ...

We arrived in Nha Trang in the early hours of the morning, and were suprised to see many of the locals already getting there day started with group exercise on the beach. First impressions of Nha Trang, weren't bad or good. It was just ok. The busy main road parallel to the beach, high rise hotels, tacky bars and KFC made us feel like we could be anywhere. On our second day we took an 'Island hopping' boat trip. We were really excited about it as it sounded like...

I think Nic and I agree that this was our favourite place in Vietnam. Similar to Lang Prabang, with it's quaint fairy lit buildings and restaurants along the river. It was very classy and again like Lang prabang a national heritage site. The thing that gives Hoi An the upper hand though is it's stunning white sand beach. With a coast line that stretches over 3km, lined with palm trees and not much else, it was a great place to unwind in the day. The town and bea...

We had a one day stop over in Hue to break up the journey to Hoi An. After another nightbus and the longest session of the name game EVER we arrived. We stayed at the sister hostel of where we had stayed in Hanoi and the 6 of us (friends from the boat trip) settled into our dorm before going of to explore. Hue is the former capital of Vietnam and I can see why its not now. It's not a bad place theres just very little going on. We took a boat trip along the ...