Time for some fun in the sun and finally for Stephen to try his hand at surfing! The Surf Shack tucked away at the end of a dirt road, run by an American called Tipi, gave Him his first lesson in surfing the waves, and boy were there some waves! Three hours of standing, falling, splashing and wiping sea spray from his face, Ste waded out of the surf red eyed and with a huge smile on his face, not realising that his body would ache for the next three days but the surf bug was now securely planted.

Day two saw us hit the Vinpearl water and amusement park. Located on a secluded island off Nha Thrang, visitors had to take what is said to be the longest cable car in the world across to the island where we spun upside down, jumped on trampolines, took an alpine slide down the mountain, swung side to side on a pirate ship and flung ourselves down water slides called Tsunami and space hole! Adults were smiling more than the kids!

Finally, the one remaining stop we had left was Ho Chi Min and we loved it! Although another bustling city, it was more spacious, more modern, cleaner and with more meaningful history for some! Apart from a better night life and greater selection of restaurants which may I add was never a problem in Vietnam, as wherever we ate was one delicious meal after another, we were also struck by the realism of what was The Vietnam War!

A visit to the war museum brought to reality the true devastation that the war brought not just to Vietnam, but to Cambodia, Laos and all those involved! Not only was there catastrophic damage to the people and countries at the time but also the lasting affects it has had on those who were not even born yet!

So at the end of it all, although the north and south of Vietnam were so truly different, there was one thing that every village, town and city had in common…all the women, no matter what they were doing, wore pajamas night and day!!

Our first stop moving south from Ninh Bihn was Hue, a much more sunnier, modern and western city. Fewer locals bugged you to buy goods, take tuk tuks rides or be cycled around. larger stores with more westernised goods lined the streets and one could sense that there was just more money there. Hue, like Malta and Chiang Mai in Thailand has an old city called the Citadel. The Citadel is surrounded by old brick walls, encapsulating the grand palace where the emperor of Vietnam used to reside with his family and host birthday celebrations, as well as inaugurations and make important military and strategy decisions for the country.

We also took a moped tour around local pagodas seven stories high, local Buddhist and catholic shrines where we also learnt that Buddhism and Catholicism is 50:50 in Vietnam, as well as Vietnam War USA military shooting and lookout points along the perfume river.

From Hue, we moved onto Hoi An, a quaint town, where the its life is centered around its artisan market and restaurants. Every shop supplied its guests with beautiful hand made pashminas, jewelry, woodwork, tailor-made clothing from shirts, ball gowns and shoes to belts, bags and hats. Brightly colored paper lanterns decorated the river, bridge and walkways and even the rain couldn’t keep people away.

After the last few weeks of culture Ste an I decided to head further south for a a few days of sun, sea and surf…Nha Trang!

After Halong Bay, Ste and I moved even further north up into the mountains of Sapa! A more secluded part of Vietnam where all the locals still dress in their traditional tribal costumes of indigo hand woven cloth and large silver hooped earrings, necklaces and bracelets. The land is literally covered in indigo paddies and rice paddies dotted with local dwellings. One day we embarked on a 13km trek in a group through one of the local villages and bamboo jungle. From the offset a group of tribes women glued themselves to us and waked with us the entire way asking our names, where we where from, helping us a long the slippery narrow paths of the jungle. All seemed friendly and fun until we got to the end and they all produced hand made goods for us to buy and when any of the group refused or didn’t give them what they thought to be enough tip, they got in a bad mood or said they would follow us back to our hotels so we can give more money!!!!

The final destination in the north was a very unassuming city where very few tourists visit called Ninh Binh, also described as the Halong Bay of the rice paddy fields, this description fits it to a tee! Just five minutes out from the city by moped you reach an area called Tam Coc, where again women in bamboo boats row tourists through the river using their feet! Either side of the river are rice paddies shadowed by gargantuan cliffs just like those of Halong Bay dwarfing the farmers tending to their crops below.

During our three weeks in Vietnam, the one thing that really sticks out, is just how different the north is from the south…they may as well be separate countries, from the people, the weather, the clothing, the landscape and the tourists!

Our journey in the north started in the hustle and bustle of Hanoi where walking in the street was more dangerous then juggling fire and knives! We watched the famous water puppet show, visited the local markets which were obviously not often frequented by foreigners by the strange looks we were given and walked around the Japanese Literacy Temples where the education began in Vietnam!

From Hanoi we travelled a little further east to the breath taking Halong Bay (Land of the Descending Dragon) for a one day and night cruise on a traditional Vietnamese cruise ship. The cruise took us to the surrounding floating villages where women rowed us in their bamboo boats showing off their pearl fishing farms, then to Ti Top Mountain which involved climbing three or four hundred steps to take in the view, squid fishing at night off the back of our ship and finally to what is called the Surprising Cave, full of chambers one bigger than the other filled with stalagmites and stalactites in the shapes of animals and humans (if your imagination was up to it).