Bree punching one in the face and almost kicking the same lady as she made a rapid descent down a muddy slope. As fate would have it, out of 511 hotels available on agoda in Ha Noi, we chose the same as Dennis and Nicole who we said goodbye to in Hue. They happened to be planning the same as us, a trip to Sapa in North West Vietnam, with some quick rearranging of our accommodation thanks to Tim our desk man; we booked into a 2 day trip leaving the following night. We piled the majority of our luggage into the corner of the hotels main dining room. We weren’t leaving on our overnight train until 9.50pm so we thought it would be a good idea to grab a $4 bottle of vodka and kick ... read more

The world’s most beautiful & magnificent cave A $7.50 train ride to Dong Hoi. This is a much safer option than the bus that teeters on the edges of lakeside cliffs as we dodge lane-swapping oncoming traffic. Upon arrival at our hotel we enquired about a few different tour options for the famous ‘Phong-Nha Caves’. After some consideration of the very limitedtour options we decided to hire a motorbike and endure the 140km round trip ourselves. That night we went in search of dinner. We weren’t after much, but when thinking back to our time in Battambang, Cambodia this place is 5 times quieter. Dong Hoi was a ghost town and luckily enough the only apparent person who spoke English was the manager at our hotel. We managed to find a restaurant that kindly offered us ... read more

We boarded our 8am bus booked last minute lastnight to Mui Ne. Mui Ne is North up the coast from Ho Chi Minh and is famous for their windsurfing and sand dunes. It wasn’t until we stepped onto the bus and were asked to remove our shoes that we realised we had booked a sleeper bus. We were slightly excited as we had wanted to experience one. Our excitement levels were soon dampened when we realised we had been shafted to the back, sharing a very cosy seat with 3 other strangers, very much hung-over from their previous night out. With our hotel address now very skilfully programmed into our phones we managed to get off the bus within walking distance to our hotel. Checking in to our $21/night room, we were upgraded to the Premier ... read more

You should never base your opinion on a place from first impressions; if we did we may have just jumped back on the bus and left. We took the early bus from Siem Reap and arrived around midday to check into Aisa Hotel (where Dennis & Nicole will also be staying). We took a walk to find some lunch and felt a little let down by Lonely Planets 4th highest tourist destination in Cambodia. The evening improved our spirits slightly with a nice dinner at a resturant that hires under privegled street children to help support their family. Our second day involved a nice breakfast at the hotel, $1.50 per kg laundry that we couldn't say no to and the decision to hire bikes and take a ride around the town and get a feel for ... read more

We have been on mini buses before in South-East Asia that were clearly a test of our survival skills. No idea why we thought this trip was going to be any better. We spent more time on the left side of the road (which is the wrong side of the road) than the right side of the road. I am also convinced that the horn was definitely jammed on the whole time. There is no way that someone could have the thumb strength to hold it on for 5 hours straight. We did arrive in Siem Reap eventually, and not too worse for wear. We booked our accommodation online prior to arrival. Lovely pool, nice breakfast and spacious room. Or so the photos and internet description suggested. As soon as we plonked our bags down in ... read more