The veritable truth on Vietnam (in our opinion)

Our time in Vietnam was spent visiting cities, chilling in small world heritage towns and relaxing at the beach. If we had to choose one word to describe how we felt about the country, it would be surprised. We arrived in Vietnam thinking it would be exciting to visit, but would be rather hard to travel around and language might be a bit of an issue. We could not have been more wrong. Everyone spoke English, getting from place to place was easy (if rather long on the bus) and food was amazing, getting real bread was nice after a month of sweet bread in China. Here we go with the wrap up.

Best of: Cheap drinks, Mui Ne, food

Worst of: Ho Chi Minh City (neat for a couple hours, then tiring), bus rides, Cu Chi tunnel tour

Best meal: Jarret - Grilled crab and tiger prawns, Leigh - Grilled tiger prawns

Worst meal: Pizza with peanut buttery sauce in HCMC

Yes please: Value for money - easily the best value for money yet on the trip with your dollar going ffffffaaaaaaaarrrrrr (coming home is going to be a shock to the system in this dept)

No thanks: One lane "Highways" where it takes 6hours to drive 200 km, young kids with no helmets on scooters (weird since their parents all wore one).

For real? We read Mui Ne was a kitesurfing mecca, but no way were we prepared for the cool sight of over 50 kites in the air each afternoon!

Are we in Kata, Thailand? Once again, Russians dominated the beach town we were in. Who'd a thunk it.

Pleasant surprise: There was so much variety in food, and it was all good. From fresh french bread with pate, to traditional pho and variations of it. For Jarret, best food yet on the trip, for Leigh, lots of choices that all tasted good.

Our time in Vietnam was great, the only draw back was that we did not have enough and had to cut some things out. It really would make an excellent three week holiday. It offers the perfect mix of city, rural and beach. Once it gets easier to fly to, it really could give Thailand a run for its money. We already met two couples who had been to Thailand five times, but are going to come back to Vietnam from now on. If your looking for an exotic locale with amazing beaches, good food, friendly people and exciting cities, look no further.