Geo: 10.9331, 108.283Wow, after three days in Mui Ne, it was enough to say that so far it is one of my favourite places on this trip so far. The area is beautiful, beaches, sand dunes and water-sports. A place where you could easily spend over a week relaxing and enjoying sights.We took a four hour bus from Dalat and arrived at midday and settled in to a guesthouse for $8 per night which was great as we were expecting to pay at least $15 as Mui Ne has a lot of fancy hotels and resorts.We settled in and went straight for the beach. Our accommodation walks out on to the beach. Mui Ne beach is where the tourists stay, Mui Ne town is about 5 km away. The beach has many places for accommodation and ... read more

Geo: 16.4635, 107.585After spending a low key day in Hanoi and buying our open bus ticket we were on the road in an overnight bus to Hue. Before we had been liaising with couchsufers in Vietnam to see if we were able to spend a day working with some locals in the rice fields, but we were a few weeks to late and all the fields had been cultivated, a bit of a bummer, I was really looking forward to that experience, nevermind. The trip took around 12 hours and we arrived in a more quieter and low key town compared to the loud and chaotic area of the Old Quarter in Hanoi.We checked in to our hotel and then set about thinking of what we wanted to see and do. We spent the first half ... read more

Geo: 22.3945, 104.056Country number three and a big change in pace from a population of 7 million in Laos to 87 million in Vietnam. We were looking forward to exploring Vietnam and what better way to start off than from the north west. We crossed the border three days after we had planned from the start of our visa. The bus got us to the border and the first thing I did was "mark my territory" on Vietnamese soil, unintentionally of course, then we continued to the first major town of Dien Bien Phu. We had to stay one night in Dien Bien Phu for the 6am bus direct to Sapa. We would have liked to do the north west loop by bike, but starting in Dien Bien Phu would have mean't a bit of backtracking ... read more

Geo: 14.116, 105.8564000 Islands, a natural phenomena where the Mekong river widens from the standard size of a few hundred meters to it's widest point of 12km and length of about 45km down the very bottom of Laos. There's no prizes for guessing why it's called 4000 Islands aka Si Phan Don.There are only three main islands that are accessible to the tourists, Don Khong, the biggest island which is usually bypassed for the smaller islands of Don Det and Don Khon which are further south.We set of by mini van from Pakse for the big island where we ran in to familiar faces. In a country like Laos, Vietnam and even Thailand where there is basically one main road linking all the main places together, it's not hard to keep running in to people going ... read more

Geo: 18.9401, 102.357Vang Vieng, a town that seems to have lost its soul and fallen in to a viscous cycle of a constant flow of drunken backpackers, but beyond this town lies beautiful landscape that offers heaps of activities such as the infamous tubing, rock climbing, trekking and kayaking etc.To get here, we hopped on a 6hr mini van ride through some amazing mountain and jungle scenery but on horrible road conditions with holes and rugged dirt sections, landslides are also commonly apparent.On arrival we found a nice guesthouse for a pretty cheap price that included everything including hot water, four baby puppies, television and a mountain view balcony for a partial sunset. We walked around town and found there was a day kayaking trip to Vientiane which immediately appealed to us and a great way ... read more