Tuesday 24th November
While spending a day of R&R on the beach on Phu Quoc Island doing very little but sudoku, swimming & eating fresh fruit we were approached by a local lad selling a boat tour out of An Thoi, the main port on Phu Quoc.
The tour included a boat trip into the archipelago of [...]

It’s time to catch a breath and write a quick update following our whirlwind and very interesting tour through the Mekong Delta.  As I sit here on the M.V. Vinashin Rose, a hydrofoil craft taking us speedily from Rach Gia in south-west Vietnam to the island of Phu Quoc, I wonder was it worth it [...]

Ok, take all the motorbikes in the world minus the Harleys minus all the motorbikes in Hanoi and Bangkok.  Now multiply the population of Ireland by 2, remove all the friendliness, manners and etiquette, add a s**t load of annoying locals selling cheap sunglasses and zippo lighters that approach you while you’re trying to eat [...]

We arrived in Danang Monday afternoon and quickly passed through to our final destination of Hoi An.
Hoi An is a charming old town on the east coast famous for it’s special noodle dish Cau Lau.  Cau Lau is a type of flat noodle and is cooked three times in special water drawn from a well [...]

On Sunday we had an early wake up call on Monkey Island so there was no time to enjoy the island on our third day in Halong Bay.  We set off on a small raft with diesel engine at about 8am.  This took us to Cat Ba Island.  On our way we passed something you [...]

Friday 13th to Sunday 15th November
Well Friday the 13th brought us our first bad weather since arriving in SE Asia and we were without internet for the weekend so here’s a 3 day catchup post.
Halong Bay is a group of 2000+ islands in the Bay of Tonkin in the South China Sea on the southern [...]

It’s the evening of our last day in Sa Pa and we’re getting set to head for the overnight train back to Hanoi followed by a 3.5 hr bus ride to Ha Long Bay on the south coast of the norteastern province of Vietnam.
The weather was forecast to be awful but latest reports are that [...]

Yesterday (Monday) was our last day in Hanoi.  I can’t say I’ll be sorry to see, or rather hear, the back of it.  Hanoi is a significantly more attractive city to visit than Bangkok but it is incredibly noisy.
One moped goes down a Dublin street and it sounds like a hairdryer on craic from miles [...]

When you arrive in Vietnam’s capital city you don’t quite know what to expect.  Well the title says it all.
I’d read about Hanoi’s love of mopeds and motorbikes on many websites and in our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook but you think, ah how many can there be…well, take a look.

However, this was not the most [...]