Whether you call it Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City or Fred you have to admit that the Southern Capital of Vietnam has a lot going for it. Though it lacks the vibrancy and friendly bustle of Hanoi it certainly doesn'tscrimp onthings to do. Well actually, thats a bit of a fib. We didntfind much to do there but what we did see and do was striking if not profound. Our first stopwas the War Remnants Museum. It used to called victoryover China and the US museum but its nam...

I have made a bit of a backside of this blog. From Hue and the DMZ we went to Hoi An and from there to Nha Trang and from there to Mui Ne and from there to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon. I'm so irregular in writing that I have lots to catch up at any one time and I end up writing it out of sequence or under the wrong place name. Durh! Anyway. The description of Hue and the DMZ is under the Mui Ne description. So there. Any way from Hue we went to Hoi An... Hoi An at o...

Here in Mui Ne we have finally found the sort of beach we have been searching for, and with it more peace and calm and cold beer. There is little to say about the place except that it is hot, sunny and chilled. We may have a go at kite surfing tomorrow, we may not. That is how we feel. We have got a very cheap room tyhe front door of which looks out past the palm trees to the beach 3 metres away. We are content to lie in sunloungers on the soft white sand, r...

Nha Trang has possibly the worst kept beach outside of North Shields. The sand and the surrounding reefs and rocks are covered in trash. I was very sad to see this as they have a beautiful bay and water that hovers around the 29 degrees celcius mark. Also,there are some great places to eat. We had freshly caught lobster one night, and beef in lemon sauce wrapped in fresh spring roll paper the next and all sorts of tasty snacks and morsels in between. Wespent ...

After the hustle and bustle of Shanghai, Hong Kong and all stops in between we did manage to find the calmer, quieter soul of China. After or Hong Kong visa fiasco we were rather pleased that we had been allowed to leave that enclave and were even happier that our rusty dirty old Air China plane got us to Guillin in one piece. From Guilin (has a fantastic Szechuan restaurant by the river that will float anyones chilli boat but little else to recommend it) we were...