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After a 5 hour speed boat ride on the tonle sap lake from phnom Penh we arrived on the outskirts of Siem Reap to hordes of tuk tuk drivers offering to take us into town. "any hotel you want sir for $1" in the hope that you will hire their services to take you to the temples of Angkor later. By the way I would not recommend this boat run as it is fairly cramped and bumpy. We wished we had opted for the bus instead which also takes 5 hours. We got a tuk tuk with a friendly guy called Sai. He offered to come back to our hotel later to take us to the Temples. Unfortunately I was rather sick but he took Brenda into town to the markets and then on to the ... read more

If we thought Hanoi traffic was mental then this city takes it to another level. You take your life in your hands every time you cross the road. The basic rules of the road, as for the rest of Vietnam, seem to be he with the biggest vehicle and loudest horn has right of way at all times. Traffic lights are just a decoration to fit in with the rest of this neon city. Its a lot more westernized than Hanoi. But for us we think we prefered Hanoi. We stayed in Madame Cucs near the backpacker district which was fairly convenient and the staff were very helpful with sorting anything that was required. We went to visit to Cu Chi tunnels about 2 hours outside the city. This was definately one of the highlights of ... read more

Arriving back from halong bay we took yet another over night train to Hue, the Reunifcation express this time, our third overnight train in five days so I guess we are getting used to them by now. For company on this journey we had an elderly chinese couple. Of course they didnt speak any english and for sure we cant speak a word of chinese but I guess sign language is universal. We offered them a beer much to their amusement, although they didnt want any they appreciated the offer. A few minutes later they give us some chinese food which seemed to be a vegitable paste with nuts inside wrapped in banana leaf. It seemed rude not to at least try!!. Shortly after they were insisting we take some of their chocolate bars. Ah well ... read more

We took the over night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai in northern Vietnam on the chinese border. From here a minibus took us to the village of Sapa where we met our guide, a cheeky little local girl called Chi with a quick turn of phrase. The first days trekking involved a 12km hike through the mountains to a local village where we stayed the night with a local family. We had a fantastic time here with the other people in our group, an australian couple Lynda & John and a German called Thomas. We went swimming in the river with kids from the village before dinner. The family and the guide made a massive feed for us before they brought out the rice wine (think moonshine!!) Needless to say we were glad to have ... read more