Hue (+ overnight bus journey from Hanoi) - We're gonna blog you from the Delta to the D-M-Z! Finally….. getting out of the big city to travel south. Our journey started with an overnight bus ride from hell to Hue (6pm to 9am). It appears that those who can't hack it in Vietnam, drive buses!!! You squeeze into these narrow isles on the bus and then climb into your little bunk for the night. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but turning indicators ar...

We've just left Sa Pa, which is a town in northwest Vietnam. We arrived there via overnight train from Hanoi to Lao Cai (which is only 2 km from the Chinese border) and have spent the last 3 days trekking in the surrounding countryside (covering about 30km in the process and are probably going to lose a couple of toe nails due to the steep decline of some of the routes). We spent our first night staying in a Vietnamese minority-tribe village - very interesting an...

Ha Long Bay - what a tranquil place. We arrived here after a 4 hour bus journey from Hanoi. Our tour consisted of spending 2 days and 1 night on the Opera Cruise - a large junk boat. We also spent time in a floating fishing village - some of whose inhabitants have never set foot on firm ground - and trekked through the Hang Sung Sot (cave of surprises) - a series of large limestone caves. The view of Ha Long Bay from Hang Sung Sot was spectacular. The cave it...

First day exploring Hanoi in Vietnam. Getting across the street is a major mission in this city of over 2 million mopeds and in the whole area we covered today we only saw 1 traffic light, which the locals seemed to ignore anyway. Seems to only apply to cars! The food in Vietnam is amazing! The flavours are so complex and we have enjoyed it so much that we can hardly wait until our next meal. We explored the Old Quarter today (which is where our hotel is situa...