Well, what an experience! After checking out of our hotel, we went and had a delicious lunch and coffee at 'Papa Joe's', which is a cafe that has a terrific view of Hoan Kiem Lake. The meal was the perfect tonic, as we were both feeling a little 'tired' after enjoying one too many bottles of Tiger Beer the night before to celebrate the dawning of a new year. The Hanoi streets were virtually empty, due to families spending the day together for Tet. Therefore, it was quite ironic that the first time I witnessed a westerner being struck by a [View Full Entry]

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After a cramped 'bus' ride (15 people crammed into a Ford Transit van), we arrived at the harbour amongst hundreds of other tourists and were directed to our Chinese Junk - there are 500 boats in that harbour, so losing touch with your group at this point would be an absolute disaster; therefore, we remained as tightly knit as we had been in the van. The junk itself was terrific and we all spent the next couple of hours reclining on lounges on the top deck, taking in the misty splendour of the bay. We were informed that there are 1,969 [View Full Entry]

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Our sleeper train arrived at Hanoi train station just prior to five o'clock in the morning. This was preceded by some Vietnamese music playing intermittently over the speakers as an alarm clock, followed a few seconds later by a knock and a face peering into our booth telling us to get off the train. We stumbled bleary-eyed onto the platform, discovering that Hanoi was rather chilly at this hour of a winter's morning. A friendly Swedish couple who we shared our booth with offered to share a taxi with us to their hotel. We were more than happy to do this, [View Full Entry]

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Disembarking from our bus I was swamped by men offering me "Cheap Hotel". I kept saying, "No Thankyou" because I didn't have my pack yet. By the time my pack was unloaded the room price had dropped significantly to $7 U.S. a night, so I relented. After checking into the 'Thai Binh' hotel we wandered off in search of lunch. It was raining and our first thoughts of Hue were not positive, partly because every person we ran into was making a pitch to get us on their tour to the imperial tombs, the citadel and pagodas. Our hotel manager even [View Full Entry]

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The overnight bus ride from Nha Trang to Hoi An was one of those experiences where you wonder how you ever came out of it unscathed at the other end. The road we were travelling on for the few hours leading up to midnight made one wonder whether a meteor shower had come crashing to earth along the length of the highway. There were more potholes than sealed road, so the driver would simply cross into the path of oncoming trucks and buses to avoid them. Often he simply could not avoid the deep and several metres wide potholes due to [View Full Entry]

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The trip to Nha Trang from Da Lat was a hair-raising experience, winding down the steep mountain pass with scant regard for oncoming traffic around the blind hair-pin turns. Once we made it to the coast it was a stunning drive with sweeping views of the ocean and the mountain ranges coming down to meet it. At Nha Trang we found the cheapest and most luxurious accommodation thus far. The room was $7 U.S. and had ocean views, bathroom, hot water, television (to watch the Australian Open Tennis Final), fridge and a comfy bed. It was hard to believe that this [View Full Entry]

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Da Lat - what a beautiful setting for a city! It is situated in the mountains and built around a central lake. The region is surrounded with waterfalls and picturesque countryside. We spent three awesome days here, which was also largely due to meeting a group of Vietnamese university students from Ho Chi Minh City who were on our bus between HCMC and Da Lat. These people invited us to sit with them for lunch during our trip up to the mountains and we were immediately struck by their exuberance and willingness to be lasting friends. By chance (or fate?), we [View Full Entry]

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After arriving safely on an old Tiger Airways plane (it still had ash trays!), Marty and I quickly made our way through customs, exchanged some U.S. and Australian currency into Vietnamese Dong and ventured outside to figure out how we were going to get into the heart of the city. It was at this point when I became aware of something that I had forgotten from our last trip to South East Asia - the amount of people who approach you to offer you a taxi. At this point we didn't even know where we intended to stay, so we explained [View Full Entry]

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After arriving rather late, Marty and I made our way in to the city on the SMRT (still the most efficient and user friendly train system I have ever used) to Bugis Backpackers. Here we learnt a valuable lesson: just because they have a sign and their door and at the reception desk that American Express cards are welcome, don't take that as gospel! The friendly old lady who greeted us would only accept cash in Singapore Dollars, of which we had very little. She directed me to a money exchange place around the corner, so I ran there only to [View Full Entry]

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After a late flight I arrived in humid Darwin and caught the Airport Shuttle Bus to Frogs-Hollow Backpackers. Upon arrival a friendly guy from Amsterdam had a big chat to me about his travels through the countries that I am about to visit. I made my way to my dorm and was worried I would wake up those in there. I need not have worried, as the dorm was alive with the chatter of 8 friendly Indians who are up here to work for a month before heading back to university in Melbourne. We talked well into the morning before I [View Full Entry]

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