So, what could have been a total disaster has turned out to be the finest end to our trip, better than either of us could have ever imagined. We were originally booked to sail on Ha Long Bay last week, sharing a junk boat with about 10 or so others. Sadly a storm quickly put an end to that and after an agonising few hours of changing internal flights, transfers and hotel bookings we decided to give it another go before we flew home. Boy are we chuffed we did. N...

yeah......this pretty much sums up today! :-)

Oh my, where to start...... Today was another great adventure - a motorbike tour into the mountains. With Luke on a semi-automatic scooter and me loaded up on the back of a Minsk with our Vietnamese mechanic, Mr Sau, our Aussie guide Mark took us out on a fabulous all day adventure. Luke has only ridden a motorbike once, ironically in South East Asia. But, naturally, we did plenty of thorough research into the company and ride before going ahead. Any lingerin...

Although not as heavily featured as you would expect, no visit to Vietnam would be complete without seeing some home turf views of the country's military history. The Museum of Military History not only gave us some interesting insights into the Vietnamese struggles for freedom during its history (not just the US war but also several years of struggle against Chinese and French rule which is educational and quite harrowing). Never has the power of propaganda bee...

As always, there are plenty of experiences we could blog about today, but there's really only one thing we should be taking about: our great train adventure! 18.00 (train leaves at 19.00): We arrived at the station in plenty of time, not really knowing what to expect but yet confident we'd be able to figure it out. We're now sat on the train, drinking beer and eating hotdogs, waiting for our departure in 30 minutes. As you'll see, our 'soft sleeper' cabin is mo...