We are in the kitsch capital of Vietnam - Dalat. Its picture perfect and obviously the place where the more wealthy Vietnamese live or holiday. There are flowers everywhere along with fibreglass deers, horses pulling decorated carriages, Vietnamese men dressed as cowboys and couples having wedding photos taken (some of the poses are just classic...lots of pointing at nothing). We spent the afternoon walking around the large lake in the centre of Dalat taking ...

We left charming little Hoi An behind and headed for the beach resort of Nha Trang. After catching up on some sleep following our overnight bus journey we set out to book some scuba diving. The guys at the Rainbow were excellent and reassured me that I would be fine having not dived since our honeymoon - so we booked up and after hitting the beach we trudged back to our cell...sorry, hotel room for an early night. We found ourselves the next morning on a boat...

Our next stop was Hoi An and after refusing the first 2 hotels offered to us because of the extortionate rates (US$15!!) we settled on a room for a much more reasonable $7. We unloaded our bags and headed out to explore - we managed to get to the end of the street before being accosted by a slightly crazy local lady who wanted us to "look in my shop, just looking, no buying". The shop in question was a tailors and it was one of around 200 similar shops in the t...

Following our memorable bus journey we arrived in Hue as 2 very tired souls and 1 dodgy knee. Steve went into town whilst I rested, on a mission to buy a knee support strap for me - this was quite difficult to communicate so he returned with 2 deep heat patches and we cobbled together some sort of support using a bandage from our trusty first aid kit. Dr Stocks obviously knew what he was doing as it actually felt good enough to walk on and venture out to explor...

We headed out of Hanoi for a 2 day trip into Northern Vietnam. Our destination was Halong Bay for a tour of the islands and caves and an overnight stay on a Chinese junk boat. Our guide called Long was, as most of the Vietnamese people are, very happy and enthusiastic and got us involved in some very cheesy introductions and applause whilst on the bus. It was great to drive out into the countryside and see the mountains appearing and people at work in the padd...