The slow boat was described as one of those quintessential once in a lifetime journeys that you had to take while out here. Beating all other forms of travel hands down (including speed boats which have an alarming tendancy to crash. A lot). So we booked our ticket and off we went. And we weren't dissapointed- the views down the Mekong were breathtaking. We even managed to get ourselves some comfy car seats at the back of the old cargo boat by arriving early on the first morning- thanks to Kelly's impeccable organisation and punctuality of course (all the boats originally [View Full Entry]

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So after a good (ish) night's sleep we piled into the back of a pick up truck with our other intrepid explorers and headed off on the 2 hour journey to Boeko nature reserve. We'd heard so much about the Gibbon Experience (living in the trees, lots of trekking, zip-wiring from tree to tree and the very slim possibility of seeing real, live black gibbons) that we we couldn't wait to get stuck in. Arriving at the village where we were to begin our journey, we wasted no time in starting our trek into the unknown. About 40 mins in and [View Full Entry]

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Our flight from Saigon was a tad delayed (this should have been an indication of things to come) still, we boarded the plane eager to get back to Bangkok and get our heads down as it had been a busy a few days. And it was going so well- until a random bit of turbulence made our measly little plane feel as though it was dropping out of the sky around an hour into the journey. Now, i know Kelly can be a bit of a drama queen at the best of times, but take it from me- we were crapping [View Full Entry]

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Nha Trang was just what we expected- built up, with high rise hotels on the sea front but very tourist-friendly nonetheless. Reminded us a little of Majorca or other such locations where the ex pats outnember the locals. Arriving early we got a room at what the guide book told us was 'one of the best guesthouses in all of Vietnam'. We weren't diassapointed with the PerfumeGrass Inn- the staff were lovely, it was good value at $12 with breakfast and had a good location. We also took them up on the offer of taking us by motorbike to the nearby [View Full Entry]

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The night bus arrived in Hue early the next morning. Bumpy ride to say the least but we were in one piece and eager to see what there was to see in Hue and move on (we'd heard much nicer things about Hoi An which was our next planned stop). The aggravation started the moment we stepped off the bus- motorbike and cyclo drivers coming at us from every angle asking us if we wanted a 'moto' or a 'cyclo', there were also more people trying to sell us things and others trying to get us into their hotels. It was [View Full Entry]

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We managed to wangle quite a plush hotel in Hoi An- swimming pool, big airy rooms with mozzy net and balcony, free bicycles and breakfast included (all for only $15 a night). It was a 5 minute cycle out of the main town but that's where the bikes came in- it was quite a pleasant cycle anyway- plus we discovered a cool little secluded beach a couple of kms away so they definitely came in handy (although to look at the state of them they were probably around during the American war). Hoi An is by far our favourite place in [View Full Entry]

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We left for Sapa on the night train from Hanoi at 8pm. Just as we were about to board the train the driver of the minibus that took us to the station accosted us, handed over a suspect looking container and insisted that Ellie (one of our group) act as a carrier for said container-delivering it to our hotel in Sapa on our arrival the next morning. All a little bit confused (with visions of us all appearing on the next series of 'banged up abroad') and weary of the suspect package we reluctantly accepted once the helmet clad driver told [View Full Entry]

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We drove for about 2 hours until we reached the port of Ha Long. The weather was more like drizzly Harwich than beautfil Ha long but we didn't let that spoil things. The port was a little dissapointing as it was soooooo crowded (around 500 of these 'junk' boats all departing on similar trips), but we were kind of expecting that. The boat itself (the Imperial Junk) was really nice and we enjoyed spending the first night floating around the amazing islands/rock formations (of which there are something like 150,000 sq kms). Met a nice Aussie family (parents were both teachers [View Full Entry]

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We travelled back down to Bangkok from Kanchanaburi early Weds morning (traveling in a slightly unconfortable mininbus with the locals- although it did have air con). We checked back into the old faithful on the Khao San, the D&D Inn. The day was almost entirely spent in the conputer room as we had lots of internet bits and bobs to sort (not to mention about a million pictures to upload and store). We met up with the friends we met in Kanchanaburi in the evening (James and Kim) and braved a Ping Pong show off of Patpong (we'd made a blood [View Full Entry]

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We ditched the bright lights and raucoussness of Bangkok for the quieter, more rural and picturesque province of Kanchanaburi. We found out about the public bus and headed for the station. It was a little primitive but all very well organised (considering British transport). Short as it may have been, (around 2 hrs) it felt quite nice to think it's the first journey organised all on our own! We stayed in a little guest house down by the river Kwai- very reasonable compared to Bangkok prices and it also had a swimming pool. Visited the War museum which was very moving [View Full Entry]

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