When you read that Vientiane is a place with not much to do, and easily brushed over, to us this means that it is a place that we will probably feel at home in. We are discovering that we are in a funny traveller category here - too old to be in the noisy backpacker scene, but too young to be in the retired/expat scene. Clearly we relate more to the latter, as we found overselves amongst an older crowd in Vientiane, whose priorities seemed to be leisurely dining ...

Topping the list so far as the place where we have been most happily surprised is....Hanoi! Reading online and talking with some travellers about Hanoi had us prepared for an overhwhelming city with not much appeal, but we found that we really enjoyed it. Yes, the motorbikes and traffic are shocking at first. The little streets of the Old Quarter are absolutely stuffed with transport and we found that closed toed shoes and razor sharp concentration while walking...

It shows that we have been travelling together for too long, as this musical title of the earworm of this part of the journey was brought to you by Troy, NOT Clare. After much researching and deliberating, we decided to see Ha Long Bay (THE Vietnam sight) via a 3 day/2 night cruise with 1 night on the boat, and 1 night on Cat Ba Island. There are so many tour companies and boats operating variations of a Ha Long experience that it was almost impossible to decide...

...into the rice paddy, if you are not careful. This is November hiking in Sapa! We scheduled a 2 day/1 night trek with an organization called Sapa Sisters - a locally owned tour company by women from the H'mong tribe in northwestern Vietnam. We met our friendly guide early in the slightly rainy morning, rented rainboots on, full of excitement for the trekking experience. We were eager for the exercise as fried spring rolls, beach lounging, and torrential rain h...

3 important lessons were learned during our brief and incomplete time in Hue: 1. When it is raining, and you think, "We won't go tour the main sites today because tomorrow has to be better", you are being foolish. The weather can always get worse. Cloudy photos are better than none at all. 2. Those flimsy flip-flops that Clare did not bring because she scoffs at how impractical they are do serve a purpose other than kicking around on the beach, and protecting y...