Next stop on our tour of Vietnam was Ho Chi Min City itself, formally known as Saigon and fondly still called Saigon by all the locals, in fact we think it is only tourists who call it good old HCMC!!!! Anyway we had a couple of days here to potter around, it is so much bigger than Hanoi and takes a lot longer to get to all the sights. We only took in the War Remnants Museum (Formally called Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes), this museum was amazing, and we must confess brought a lump to our throats, it depicts in a rather one sided way what the Americans and South Vietnamese did to the North Vietnamese throughout the American War, the photography was extraordinary showing the audacity of what the Americans got up ... read more

Ahhh the Heat, Sun and Gorgeous Beach of Nha Trang. We spent 3 nights here, and moved every night, for many reasons, one being the first place we stayed was $22 where everywhere else was $10. We booked because G got nervous that there would be no where, it turned out we were offered rooms for $5 on our walk to our $22 place, Backpackers Hotel. This was nice but they wouldn’t let us check in till 2pm, having arrived at 6am we weren’t that impressed, luckily we were so excited about getting to the beach we said okay, donned our swimwear and headed off to the Sailing Club where we spent all day drinking, getting burnt and eating the yummiest food we’d had in a long time. We then moved the next day on the ... read more

After a 15 hour journey on the lovely sleeper bus from Hanoi - note the sarcasm these sleeper buses are not lovely, your feet lay in a enclosed box reminiscent of a coffin and if you are taller than 5 foot its rather uncomfortable, if you are a large chap /chapess you will discover that it is rather narrow, T opts for the centre aisle as the window seats offer a view but only the movement of one arm as the other is pressed against the window but for $15 you can’t complain too much! The bus is a coach and if you picture a coach similar to a greyhound or national express etc, and where the seats are rows of bunk beds two beds on the left window, two in the centre and finally two ... read more

The event started off in a pretty normal manner we booked an overnight bus to take us to the border town of PingXiang from Yangshou. We found the notion of not ‘needing’ a ticket a tad strange but not completely unheard of. So as the clock struck 18:30 our taxi van arrived; we boarded the van with Jake an Aussie dude and headed to Yangshou. We arrived in Yangshou and the taxi driver walked us around to the CITS ticket office and relayed our information to the woman and then leaves, the CITS women (number 2 in the chain) gives us a business card with a hand written number on and told us to call the number on arrival at Guilin and someone will meet us. We were then taken to the bus station where a ... read more

After lunch following our trek of the Tiger Leaping Gorge, we boarded a private mini bus and headed 2 hours south to Lijiang. The bus journey was pretty uneventful and upon arriving in Lijiang we followed the Sarah and Callum the aussies to the hostel they were booked in. Panba Guesthouse, 120yn for a massive double room and ensuite, it was lush but reminded us we were back on the tourist trail, where were our 60yn rooms???? Unfortunately it chucked it down when we arrived and pretty much stayed that way the entire time we were there. Lijiang however is gorgeous even in awful weather. The old town where we stayed is a maze of cobbled streets, rickety old wooden houses and clear water canals everywhere with fish in them!!!! Apparently, the canals were once the ... read more