Who: Rick Simons, Rudy Fettig and Rick Posnick of Boulder; Tony Tran; and David Nguyen. Where: At Ha Giang Province, 4 days motocycling tours. Ha Giang is in the northeast, just south of the Chinese border, a place many hill tribes live, Khau Vai love market, Dong Van - H'mong King's house Best meal: We had dinner at the Ha Giang Village, where ...

Over the past few weeks we've been traveling through the Magical Lands of Vietnam...We arrived in the old southern city of Siagon, now called Ho Chi Minh after the vietnam war. We roamed the city on motorbike which was crazy! We've never scene such a vast sea of motorbikes anywhere!... With Dan's excellent driving skills we bravely battled throu...

Turns out no one seems to be using the hotel computer so decided to get on while the coast is clear! Okay time for a beast of an update! We start with Wednesday 11th July... Wednesday ---------- Wake up. Dave rings up yet another person he met last year, this time Maneesa - very nice but also slightly crazy. The two of us go to meet her at the o...

Arriving in Hanoi I couldnt believe the cold. It was just like a winters day back home. Everyone was wearing heavy jackets, scarves, woolly hats and the like. I hadnt worn a heavy top since leaving London so it was some change. We booked a tour for Halong Bay which is about 3-4 hours away with the promise that it wasnt as wintery there.Three da...

It seems somehow fitting that a country as comparatively laid-back as Vietnam should have a maximum road speed of just 70KMH (43MPH). Walking round Hanoi for the first time, you would be forgiven, however, for describing the place as anything but laid-back. A non-stop and often highly concentrated stream of motorbike and moped traffic clogs Hano...

If I had one word that summed up Vietnam it would be Scooter. Now this may seem as though I am doing it a diservice but I do not mean any offence. The one thing that strikes you about Vietnam is the vast number of scooters that are all vying for attention on the roads. They are gleaming specimens of peoples desires to live in a capatalist societ...

hanoi ist der definitive "hoehepunkt" von vietnam. alles was in vietnam schlecht ist, ist hier konzentriert. zu viel verkehr (und gehupe), unfreundliche und deppate leute, grauslich touristisch (keine auch nur irgendwie netten lokale oder restaurants), ... super war der besuch des ho chi minh mausoleums. nach dem eintritt in das gelaende wird ei...

From Hue, we also arranged a day trip to the DMZ: The De-Militarised Zone. This is basically a 5km stretch of land between North and South Vietnam from the war, which was, as such, a "No Mans Land." The DMZ ironically became one of the most Militarised Zones in the world. This was where the biggest battles were fought, like Hamburger Hill - name...

Day 28 - 27/11/04 Saturday - Hoi An to Hanoi Up early again and the three of us (Aye - Gareth escaped too) taxi to the airport and the quickest check in and security check we have ever had - after 5 minutes we were sitting in the departure lounge. On the plane we got a free paper which talked about the flooding - 22 deaths, roads flooded, landsl...

QUICK NOTE OF CLAIRIFICATION: My mother pointed out that from reading my travelogue it sounds like we are ignoring hungry children. Please note that we have given money and bought things from many of these children (even though the Lonely Planet strongly advises against this). The children that we have referred to as "annoying" are well dressed,...