Saturday 1st November - After an hour delay sitting outside our old hotel waiting for the correct bus to turn up we were on pur way to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We didn't arrive until gone 7pm because of the delay. We are only really here to get our visas for Cambodia sorted and book a bus to the border. As we arrived so late we were forced to book into a hotel for 2 nights. Immediately i preferred Saigon to Hanoi as although it's just as busy, the streets are wider, cleaner and everyone is a lot less fussy [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday 29th October - Our bus picked us up at 8am and we would arrive in Mui Ne at 2pm. It was so much better travelling during the day. It was so much more comfortable, and there was some great scenery to look out for. As with most of the routes in Vietnam, we spent a lot of time either weaving through hills or mountains or passing alongside the coast. For the first time in a week we had clear skies aswell. Mui Ne is just a small strip of hotels and bars that runs along 11km of beach. There are [View Full Entry]

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Monday 27th October - Arrived in Nha Trang at 5.30am after another dodgy journey. The bus would speed through as fast as possible despite the roads being covered in potholes. At about 5.15am we reached the coast as we entered Nha Trang. There was the most fantastic sunrise over the sea and the nearby islands but as my bed was in the middle of the bus i couldn't get a good picture. We aim to stay here two nights but if it rains then there will be little point as all the tours are beach based. After a nap for a [View Full Entry]

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Days 54 - 56. Friday 24th October. Woken up by Lin at 8.30am as she was heading off and wanted to say goodbye to us all before she did. So sat in watching films until checkout at midday. Our bus to take us to Hoi An arrived at 2pm. This journey was only 4 hours and the beds were so much more comfortable than the trip to Hue. We still had a ridiculous driver though who would overtake blindly on steep corners up in the mountains. He also almost hit a woman on a bike at one point but for the [View Full Entry]

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Our overnight bus left Hanoi at 7pm and would arrive in Hue at about 8am the next day. It's supposed to be a sleeper bus but they do everything to encourage you to stay awake for the whole night. Firstly, the beds are great, if you are Vietnamese and therefore only 5 feet tall. They are also great if you like to sleep at a strange angle - half laying down, half sitting up. When we got on the coach we were forced to watch some sort of Vietnamese Variety Performance at full volume. Naturally, my bed was directly under a [View Full Entry]

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Days 48 - 51 (Saturday 18th October - Tuesday 21st October). Had to get up really early on the 18th to get to our coach to the border. Coach journey was almost unbearable. The humidity was ridiculous and you couldn't sleep as the driver opted to drive with his horn again. It took about 2 hours to reach the border and from there we had to go through 5 or 6 checkpoints before being allowed to cross. They varied in strictness. The first one involved just everybody holding our passports up as we drove slowly passed and the last one we [View Full Entry]

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Day 46 - Thursday 16th October - We were awoken at 2am by the staff on the train to be told we were at our stop. Very tired, but luckily it was only a few minutes walk to our hostel - Lotusland. It was then our turn to wake the staff there, but they were very friendly. For some reason i couldn't sleep so just lay in my bed until about 5am that morning. Got up early though and went for my usual wander on my own to check the place out. There is very little tourism in Nanning, but it's [View Full Entry]

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Day 43 - Monday 13th October. It's my birthday!!! Woke up with a bit of a hangover from the night before so was obviously pleased when Paul came down with a beer for everyone at breakfast! Before we went out for my birthday we had to go through the formalities of booking our train to Nanning etc for the 15th. We went out mid afternoon for drinking, a meal and to be stared at but it was raining heavily all day so couldn't venture too far. After dinner we bought a bottle of what turned out to be Chinese rice wine. [View Full Entry]

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Day 41 (cont.) - We left our hostel in Shanghai at about 3.30pm. The cab driver who took us to the station was ridiculous. He'd just use his horn constantly, half the time there would be nobody in the way. I think it's just a hobby for them out here, it doesn't really seem to serve any purpose. Still, he got us to the station in one piece (just about). We had a bit of a wait for the train so after buying some supplies (blueberry flavour and cucumber flavour crisps!!!!) we sat and waited. People just turned round and stared [View Full Entry]

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Days 39 - 41. There wasn't really too much to do in Shanghai. Our hostel is from the same branch as the one in Beijing so it's been good to relax there for a few days. My camera broke so i had to buy a new one for 100quid (more than 3 days budget!!!) so i've been laying low for a bit. On the first day here we were all starving so went to try and find a Mcdonalds (eating real Chinese is great for dinner but breakfast and lunch is a bit too much). We turned right from our hostel [View Full Entry]

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