Unfortunately, our second sleeper bus wasn't as pleasant as the first, as we were at the back. This isn't good for two reasons: one being you have to sleep next to someone else as there are three conjoined seats and two... The toilet is right next to you! Never the less, we survived and arrived into Hanoi at about 7 am. We shared a cab with a Dutch guy but soon realised the cab driver was taking the "long way" and when we arrived at the hotel we had booked it was...

I loved Hué as soon as we arrived in the hostel district! It was a fair old trek with the backpack in tow after the bus, but the colourful street was dotted with restaurants, bars and shops, without being overdeveloped. We settled on a very reasonable $12 room and set straight out, had a wonderful meal of crispy fried noodles, found a bar with buy-one-get-one-free wine and then on to a club which was recommended by some boys we met at dinner. It was full of d...

I never expected a 16 hour bus ride to be enjoyable, but the journey through the mountains, heading north, really got off to an awesome start! First of all, it was our first "sleeping" bus so that was a real novelty, and soon after we got going we were greeted with heart stopping views into the valleys, hanging off the edge of the cliffside as we bumped along the gravel tracks! I tried to take some pictures of the waterfalls and jungle as we went along but it was...

Our Mekong Delta trip from HCMC didn't disappoint, we had a jam-packed day seeing the river sights from an array of different sized boats! However, the first interesting part of the day was in the mini-bus rest stop where there was a selection of live fighter fish in what appeared to be very foamy bear. I inquired at the pay-point and was informed "You drink fighter fish, it make you strong"! This one isn't a tradition I'm up for trying, how very unfortunate for...

What a charismatic place to start our trip, HCMC has a wonderful mix of the developed world and the ancient traditions you expect from a city here in the Far East. The first thing I realised was that it is no small fish in the fryer of Vietnam, as it so often is thought of in comparison to Hanoi, the relatively new capital since the fall of Saigon in 1975 when the Vietnam War came to a bloody end. The spralling mass of the buildings took me by surprise as we lan...