28 feb - Friday Woke early and rose at 7am. Just in time to see our surrounding area. Momentarily, the mist has lifted to reveal stunning pine-covered mountains, in fact highest mountain in Vietnam, Fan Si Pan achieving 3,143 metres above sea level, is across the valley from our Homestay. Decided on clean teeth and scrubbed hands/faces, will have to leave showering till the Hotel later. Our guide has arrived for another day of trekking. Waiting for our younger fellow Trekkers to wake-up, amazing how much sleep they can enjoy! Looking forward to Pancakes this morning, after which our morning trek will take us to Giang Ta Chai village where the Red Dao Tribe live. After a lunch stop we trek onto Ban Ho Village. Transferring by road back to Sa Pa late afternoon, we are ... read more

26 feb - Wednesday Up fairly early 0600 hrs, need to redistribute our baggage for the flight to Hanoi, as on arrival we go straight to Sa Pa by Sleeper train for 3 days trekking near the Chinese Border. We will leave all but essentials in Hanoi.We are both paranoid about heights and are keeping our fingers crossed that we don't have to traverse too many rope bridges, could just be too exciting for the pair of us. In the hours before our flight, we took a walk through Hue's market area, Dong Bu, which lies to the South East of the Citadel. All manner of grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, including raw meats being butchered. Plenty of pig's trotters, snouts and all sorts of unidentifiable bits being hawked. We are still amazed by the fact ... read more

24th feb - Monday Up with the mopeds, but spent an hour enjoying home brewed tea (Paula's ) in our comfortable room. After a reasonable breakfast with as much fruit as a body can take, We leave on foot for the Imperial and Forbidden City, fighting off persistent offers of Taxi, Bike,Rickshaw Cyclists, we finally reach the Island and enter through Ngo Mon Gate. The colours and architecture are very impressive. The Citadel itself had been badly damaged through the ravages of war, but with help from the UN and other Charities, the City is slowly restoring some of its short but colourful history under the Nguyen and French Dynasty. We ambled around without a guide, but absorbed the flavour of the site, which we found very peaceful. Upon reaching the Mandarin's audience room, there is ... read more

22nd feb - Saturday To firstly continue from last evening: Sought out the much-acclaimed restaurant, Morning Glory. It was in full swing when we arrive and we feel absurdly grateful to be shown to a table. We peruse the menu for quite some time before realising that actually we aren't bowled over by the choices being offered. I think, had we not already ordered and been served with drinks we may have sloped away to find an alternative venue. Decided eventually on 2 main dishes. Prawn Curry for Leo and Crispy Pork Belly for Paula. We ate some, swapped meals, shared the best bits, but still a fair amount of it went back to the kitchen. Just didn't deliver the promised authentic Vietnamese Street Food, and not cheap either. Never mind. Today started with hot, bright ... read more

20th feb- Thursday Hoi An at 7am - Travelling through the night by bus is not as uncomfortable as you would first imagine, even after ten and a half hours. Half occupancy may have helped, but it appeared that most of us slept very well, arriving fairly refreshed at a dismal and dusty tiny bus station. If first impressions count, then we could have fled Hoi An on the first bus Northbound, but we are made of stronger stuff and suspected there was in fact a wondrous City out there ready to unfold it's history to us. Short taxi ride to our home stay, aptly named 'Our House Home Stay' we received a lovely welcome, bearing in mind the hour of the day, and promptly shown to our room, which is a actually half a house, ... read more