It was a long seven and half hour bus trip to Kratie - flat boring countryside, very dusty in places, though the roads were all bitumen. Though it was a VIP bus DVD's were still played at top volume most of the trip which gets hard to take after a few hours. A popular DVD series features is a male comedian/singer whose screeching songs become very grating to our ears - though he's obviously very popular locally. Kratie was another quiet Mekong town, though it had quite a few larger hotels along the riverbank. Yet again there were many old French buildings and a wide esplanade along the riverbank. We found a hotel on the riverbank and then wandered into the market area which was behind the hotel. As usual we loved the market - ... read more

After a pretty unexciting (scenery wise) three and half hour bus trip we arrived in Battambang, another small city on the banks of the Mekong River. We found a guest house and spent the rest of the day exploring the place. Unfortunately Battambang and I didn't gel - I felt that it had no soul. Jerry liked it though but then he seems to like most places! It was very dusty, again with a wide riverside promenade, and seemingly no population as the streets had barely a person on them. It was very hot so I guess most people were inside. The streets along the river were lined with old French colonial buildings as are all the Mekong towns. All seemed to be in a sad state of repair - though one was in the process ... read more

Our first three hours on the slow boat into Cambodia was fun. We motored down a narrow canal and had a fabulous insight into life on the river and in the many villages which edged the banks. The houses were all on stilts, half were constructed from unpainted wooden planks, the rest from palm leaves. The wooden houses had verandas with big fabric curtains hanging from them - for privacy and sun screen reasons. Many of the curtains were patch worked in bright colours. All had boats moored, bullocks in the gardens, tall TV antennas and toilets which comprised of small low boxes at the end of a plank of wood poking out over the water. And hammocks, which we were to see all over Cambodia - under all the houses, in all the restaurants, ... read more

After a busy morning in Hoi An (mainly spent in tailor shops) we had a last lunch with Ros and Michael before heading back to Da Nang airport and our flight to Ho Chi Minh City. We had no real desire to visit this city but as we had decided to head into Cambodia via the Mekong River HCMC was on the way. It was busy - much busier than Hanoi - we had never seen as many motorbikes in one place before. The streets were moving rivers of motorbikes! A bus dropped us in the backpacker area of the city where we found a very comfortable hotel to stay in. The surrounding streets were full of Western tourists, many of them French as they seemed to be the nationality who traveled in large numbers ... read more

We had a comfortable overnight trip on the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, the station closest to Sapa. A prebooked bus drove us up the mountain to Sapa - very pretty trip though as the rice terraces had no water in them it wasn't as impressive as on our first trip in 2001.The bus let us off reluctantly in the centre of town (it was obviously planning on taking us to a hotel which would pay him a fee for bringing guests) where we found a room, right next door to the town bakery! After checking in we went off to explore - it was so much bigger and busier! There were virtually no hotels or restaurants there 8 years ago, now there was a tourist strip lined with shops, cafes and hotels. The place ... read more