Route

Pictures
Route
1 Arriving in Hanoi
2 Cyclos and scooters
3 Old town Hanoi
4 "Admin" day
5 Halong Bay
6 Halong Bay
7 Uncle Ho
8 South to Hue
9 The DMZ
10 Hue Citadel
11 Open Tour
12 Cham Temples
13 Chuc Mung Nam Moi
14 Hoi An
15 Cycling around
16 On to HCMC
17 HCMC
18 HCMC explored
19 Cat Tien
20 Cat Tien
21 HCMC
22 Mekong Delta
23 More Mekong

Vietnam

Route

We flew from Vientiane in Laos to Hanoi. An overland route would have taken a lot of time and we were careful to juggle our available days here. After a few days in Hanoi we took a trip to Halong Bay, with an overnight stay on a boat in this unique landscape. We returned to Hanoi and flew (business class, for £50!) to the ancient city of Hue, with its old citadel (mostly crumbling ruins, very atmospheric), from where we made a day-trip to the "DMZ" (De-Militarised Zone, a misnomer if ever there was one - it was the scene of some of the most intense fighting during the American War) and the incredible tunnels at Vinh Moc where a whole village had been moved underground to avoid American bombardments.

Next we took a bus south to another old town, Hoi An. Both Hoi An and Hue are very much on the tourist/backpacker trail but for good reason. We reached Hoi An around the end of January, just as preparations for Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, were reaching fever-pitch, and as we had a nice spot at the beach and a nice town to explore, we spent a few leisurely days here, with a day trip to the Champa ruins of My Son ("mee suhn").

Another flight took us straight down to Ho Chi Minh City, "HCMC", formerly known as Saigon (still preferred by the locals), where we were looked after fantastically by Tim and Erica, and had a lovely couple of days, including a weekend trip to the Cat Tien national park, for some excellent bird-spotting (we wouldn't have known what to look for by ourselves!) From HCMC we carried on south to the Mekong and went on a cheap tour that took us along the Mekong, with stops at several floating markets and villages, and across the border at Chau Doc, into Cambodia and all the way to Phnom Penh.

(Overland, Flight, Boat)

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