We'd got on a 5pm bus to Hoi An but at 8am were chucked off on to the pavement with our bags in HUE. After about an hour and a half arguing at the bus 'office' and trying to liase with the hostel who'd sold us the ticket, they put us on he next bus, after trying to get us to spend more money... not a chance!! Once we got to Hoi An we'd been travelling for 24 hours and were happy to stay in sleepy Gecko even though it was a little pricely. We headed for dinner and...

THE BEST THING I'VE DONE IN VIETNAM BY FAR!!! We went on the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel organised tour of Halong Bay. It comprised 2 nights, 3 days, and we stayed on a private island they called Castaways. We got on the boat with about 20 other young travellers and our guide introduced himself... 'Hi. I'm Liam. The drinking rules are as follows...' and he wasn't talking about safety rules. 1. Buffalo (Anyone drinking with right hand has to down their drink) 2. Cr...

THE BEST THING I'VE DONE IN VIETNAM BY FAR!!! We went on the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel organised tour of Halong Bay. It comprised 2 nights, 3 days, and we stayed on a private island they called Castaways. We got on the boat with about 20 other young travellers and our guide introduced himself... 'Hi. I'm Liam. The drinking rules are as follows...' and he wasn't talking about safety rules. 1. Buffalo (Anyone drinking with right hand has to down their drink)2. C...

There was a whole street of guest houses just on a road off the bay's promenade in Halong City. It has a lovely view but was very smoggy when we were there. Most of the restaurants were hideously expensive along there apart from bamboo which played Western music very loud while you were trying to talk to your dinner buddies. One night we just opted to get junk from the supermarket and watch 'The Hunbchback of Notre Dame' and 'Jack' in our massive room. Ideal. A...

The morning of 12th October I tried to book my flight home while Kelly and Kim booked our boat from Kat Ba to Halong City back on the mainland. I found the flight I wanted but wasn't able to book it because it is absolutely 100% illegal for anybody to do anything with ease in the country of Vietnam. I asked the man in the Internet cafe if he could change Skype settings from Vietnamese to English so I could skype the travel company and after about 1 minute of ju...