The following day we was our day to visit the Great Wall of China (at Badaling, the most accessible section from Beijing). The previous day, we had already scoped out the departure point for the public bus that we thought would take us to the Great Wall.
No one on the bus spoke English, but ... (read more →)

See all our Mekong Delta and Can Tho pictures here
The last part of our trip took us down to the south of Vietnam to see the floating markets at Can Tho and the Mekong Delta. From Saigon, we took a very long bus trip on a very old bus. The bus actually broke down on ... (read more →)

See all our Saigon pictures here

Back in Vietnam, the airport taxi in Saigon tried to rip us off – refusing to use the meter and wanting to charge an exorbitant rate. We bailed and got another taxi, which took us to our hotel in Pham Ngu Lao, Mme. Cuc #7. (Madame Cuc #7) The hotel ... (read more →)

See all our Hue pictures here
That evening we headed to Hue on the night train. We were supposed to get in at 8am, but various official-looking people told us different things about the actual arrival time and we finally got there mid-afternoon. Our hotel in Hue, the Mimosa Guest House, was clean and central.  Hue ... (read more →)

See all our Halong Bay Pictures here
The following day we had planned a day trip to Ha’long Bay. Although most people go for more than one day, our schedule was pretty tight, so we only had time for a day trip. We used the same company we had used to go to Perfume Pagoda, since ... (read more →)

See all our Perfume Pagoda pictures here
The next day, we had arranged a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda. We went with the tour company our hotel, Thu Giang Guesthouse, arranged. We ended up alone in a big minivan with a Dutch couple. Getting to the Perfume Pagoda involves a long boat trip in a ... (read more →)

See all our Hanoi pictures here
We arrived in Hanoi in the morning. As always when we arrive in a country, our first task was to find an ATM, but both the train station’s ATM’s were out of order. The nearest one was about a half hour walk with our packs. Fortunately, communication was easy – ... (read more →)

The next day, we headed to Vietnam on the train. Although the train ride was supposed to be overnight, we barely slept. The first time we stopped for visa formalities at about midnight. We continued on the train, and at about 3am, we had to change to a Vietnam train at the border. It was ... (read more →)

The next day we were supposed to be flying on to Siem Reap in Cambodia to see Angkor Wat.  (We would love to return and see more, but there just wasn’t time on this trip and Angkor has always been a dream of ours).  There was supposed to be a flight from Hue direct to ... (read more →)