After having put this trip off since 2019, due to a number of reasons, I almost had to cancel this for a 4th time after rupturing my Achilles in April 2023, but I was determined to do this trip as it was high on my bucket list!

This amazing Indochina adventure was over 21 days and consisted of highlights from Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. The tour itself was actually to be 17 days, however I also intended to stay an additional 4 days, 2 days at the beginning of the trip in the city of Hanoi and 2 days after the trip in the bustling city of Bangkok right in the heart of the famous Chinatown street.

This trip was promised as providing a wide-ranging number of activities cutting across cities as well as the regions natural wonders and cultures.

I also was eager to pull the covers back of the deep and sometimes dark history surrounding countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia.

I decided to split my flight to Vietnam directly down the middle, so I flew from London Gatwick to Doha International Airport which was a 6.5hr flight, then from Doha directly to Hanoi Airport which was 7hrs.

I landed in Hanoi on Wed 28th Feb 2024 and took a short transfer to my starting point which was the Chalcedony Hotel Hanoi.

I have to admit nothing prepared me for the sheer sensory overload I was to face when being dropped off outside the hotel!! It is 100% true what they say about not being able to cross the road, there are thousands of bikes, mopeds, tuctucs and Cyclos! With no break in the constant stream of traffic and having seen that their zebra crossings mean absolutely nothing, I took a leap of faith crossing the road to get to my Hotel.

The smells, sights, sounds and experiences I felt within the first 10 minutes I’ll never forget! But after a long flight I decided to get an early night in what was an extremely well-presented Hotel.

My first full day in Hanoi was Thu 29th Feb 2024 and it gave me some time to take a Cyclo tour around the centre of Hanoi (a Cyclo is a bike with a seat on the front that you sit on to get taken around).. As well as my first taste of ‘haggling’ with the Cyclo rider trying to get a few more Vietnamese Dong from me..

Walking around Hanoi was an experience and with a bad Achilles, made it more of a ‘challenge’ to survive the potholes, broken paving and almost impassably busy roads !!

Day 2 was another full day in Hanoi and I decided to travel a little further afield which led me to the ‘West Lake’ which had the stunning ‘Tran Quoc Pagoda’ situated within it. Unfortunately, it was closing just as I arrived, but I managed to get some good photos of it (below).

Further along my route I enjoyed a stroll through the Hanoi Botanical Gardens, One Pillar Pagoda, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and The Presidential Palace. All beautiful landmarks to have visited so early on in the trip.

As my 4th day in Hanoi drew to a close, it was time to meet the group that I would be touring with. The evening of Fri 1st March, 2024 we were told to meet in the reception of our Chalcedony Hotel Hanoi as a ‘meet and greet’ opportunity.

The group consisted of 16 people, all ages and nationalities, all were extremely friendly and it is always nice to meet like-minded travellers looking to enjoy themselves in a foreign land.

After having introduced ourselves, we had a lovely dinner and retired early evening to get ready for the next leg of our Trip which was to Halong Bay!

Below are the highlights and landmarks I got to visit in the short time I stayed in Hanoi:

• Hanoi Botanical Gardens
• One Pillar Pagoda
• Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
• The Presidential Palace
• Hanoi Train Street

Our 5th day was to be one of the highlights of the entire trip, a sail around Haylong Bay!

The short bus journey took us to the docks around the shoreline of Haylong Bay and we embarked on our ‘Junk boat’ for the 2 day sail around the Bay.

The Boat was mahogany lined and the interior looked like something from the 70’s, but the bedrooms were cosy and as we settled in, we admired the stunning views as we headed out.

Halong Bay, is situated in northeast of Vietnam and is known for its emerald waters and thousands of its trademark limestone islands that tower over your boat as you sail through. It really was a ‘pinch yourself’ moment as we headed out to sea as the views were breath-taking!

After spending the night on what was, thankfully, an extremely calm boat, we had one final landmark to see within Haylong Bay.

We embarked onto a smaller boat and travelled a short way to a jetty leading to a stairwell winding up the outside of the limestone mound.

After climbing up several flights of stairs, we came to a very small opening within the limestone that led down into a ginormous cave!!

The cave was called Sung Sot, also known as ‘Surprise Cave’. It is the largest cave of Halong Bay, with a total area of more than 12,000 square meters!

The cave was unbelievable! with 30 metre high ceilings and around 800 metres long, it could easy house 1000 people. What a way to end the Haylong Bay leg of our Journey.

It was a shame we had to leave Haylong Bay as I would have loved to stay a little longer, however our 13 hour Night Train to Hue awaited us :-/

After taking a private bus from Haylong Bay back to the capital Hanoi, we then travelled to the train station in preparation for our night train to Hue.

Boarding the Night Train was an experience! There were 4 bunks to a small room, I took the top bunk and managed to clamber up there. It was not the most comfortable journey, but I managed to get a few hours’ sleep before we arrived at Hue, which is central Vietnam.

We were only in Hue one full day before heading off, but we certainly packed in a load of great activities while we were there.

We visited several amazing landmarks such as ‘The Kings Tomb’, ‘The Royal Palace’, ‘Thanh Toan Bridge’ and the stunning ‘Thien Mu Pagoda’.

One of the highlights of the whole trip however, was a half-day trip on the back of a pack of motorbikes. There were about 10 of us all being driven through the paddy fields of Hue which was an amazing experience.

We even stopped at one of the largest incense villages called ‘Thuy Xuan Incense Village’. We watched how incense sticks are made and got to meet some of the locals whose families have been doing this for centuries.

Leaving Hue, we took a 4 hour bus journey South to the City of Hoi An where we were to be spending 3 days.

Hoi An was by far the most enjoyable segment of the Vietnam trip. Hoi An itself was incredibly colourful but the focal point was The Thu Bon River, which was a variety of bustling market stalls, lantern lined streets and lantern lit boats that truly came alive at night.

Walking through the cobbled streets as the sun set along the Thu Bon River was an experience I’ll never forget, I even got a chance to release a ‘Wish’ on the river in the form of a floating basket with a candle inside. It really is impossible for the pictures I took to convey the sensory overload felt whilst walking those streets.

On the 9th day of my trip I took a bike ride around the city and through many of the huge, brilliant green paddy fields. My bike ride was part of a 15km tour that took us to several really fun places, one of those places was the ‘Water Coconut Forest’ and Basket Boat Ride.

Each round basket boat could seat 3 people side by side (including the guy rowing for us). I decided to fly my drone above us for the duration of the journey, which seemed like a great idea until it was time to land.

I was hovering above the boat surrounded by trees and water and just about landed it in the small basket boat to a round of applause from fellow rowers! (That was definitely one of my drones lives lost)..

Our final day in Hoi An took us on a bus journey which took several hours to the Ba Na Hills of Da Nang. This was a well-earned down day after almost 2 solid weeks of back to back travel and our destination was Sun World!

I had no expectations for the Sun World Theme park, but this was one of the best experiences of the trip by a long way. On arrival we saw cable cars taking people from the entrance way up into the clouds of the Ba Na Hills. Those cable cars actually took us for a 30 min ride well above 1500 metres above sea level and above the clouds to the Theme Park itself and wow, what a surprise we had in store.

Sun World Theme Park was so large is made Disney land look tiny. It was so huge that no matter where we went throughout the park, it seemed empty. One of the highlights of Sun World is the ‘Golden Hands Bridge’ which was like another wonder of the world, it had to be seen to be believed.

After saying goodbye to Hoi An, we took a short 1 hour flight further South to the old Capital Saigon, now named ‘Ho Chi Minh City’, although all of the native population still call it Saigon.

The next 2 days were slightly more sombre, but still something I was eager to see and understand. Our City tour took us past the Thich Quang Duc Monument which is a statue of the famous ‘Burning Monk’. Thich Quang Duc was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who famously burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection in 1963 to protest the South Vietnamese government’s persecution of Buddhists.

We also took a visit to the War Remnants Museum. This was truly a sad reflection on what happened, the photography and stories told within this museum were a stark reminder of the atrocities that happened between 1955 and 1975.

The Cu Chi Tunnels was also a fascinating tour showing how the Vietnamese created and survived in underground tunnels during the war and the sort of Guerrilla warfare used during the Vietnam War.

Our final day in Ho Chi Minh City was a fantastic boat tour of the small islands (Dragon, Unicorn, Phoenix & Turtle Islands) dotted around the Mekong Delta River.

On Day 14 we crossed over the Vietnam/Cambodia border, which was a strange experience. It was like a mile of ‘no-man’s land’ where people were left to carry or lug their suitcases over pot holes and untended roads into Cambodia.

We were only staying in Phnom Penh for 2 days and our first day included a Cyclo tour of the City, taking in the stunning temples. We even managed to reach a perfect spot in front of the Independence Monument to watch the sunset through the monument!

Our 15th day took us to another though provoking and sombre part of Cambodia to see the infamous S-21 Prison, also known at the ‘Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum’. We got to walk around and go inside the awful cells where prisoners were kept and tortured 🙁 ..

S-21 was one of between 150 and 196 torture and execution centres established by the Khmer Rouge in the mid-70’s. There were an estimated 20,000 prisoners held here and only 12 survived. I was lucky enough to meet 2 of them that were in the vicinity the day I visited.

After an 8 hour Bus journey we finally reached Siem Reap in the North West of Cambodia.

We were due to stay in Siem Reap for 2 whole days and this was going to be epic, as we were due to see the eighth wonder of the World – Angkor Wat!

We were up extremely early on day 17, we rose around 4am and headed off at 5:30am to reach the outskirts of the temple site. Angkor Wat is located on a site stretching over 400km that holds over 1000 structures and 72 major temples, Angkor Wat being one of them.

We positioned ourselves amongst the many early rises that were there to see the sunrise and were not disappointed! What an amazing experience.

Our 2nd full day was another early start and we were heading for the famous ‘Ta Prohm Temple’ where Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider. This was just Jaw Dropping. The monasteries, temples and statues were all overgrown with roots from Silk Cotton Trees.

Bangkok in Thailand was as crazy as I thought it would be. An absolute blast of noise, colour and non-stop activity!! The final 3 days were based out of Chinatown in Bangkok, the Capital of Thailand.

The Hotel could not have been more central, I stayed in the Hotel Royal Bangkok. As soon as we put one foot out of the Hotel door we were literally straight into Food stalls and markets.

I’m not going to lie, the first few nights were pretty full on, but what a great experience and I sure will not forget it.

During the final few days, I took a long boat tour through the rivers that line the back streets and parts of the City that were hard to get to by foot.

I really enjoyed a visit to the Icon Siam Shopping Centre as well, one of the largest shopping centres in Thailand and had almost an unlimited selection of places to eat!

The Final night was a real treat! I went to see a real Muay Thai Fight at the World Famous Rajadamnern Stadium (front row too)..

This was such an amazing trip and one that I had been putting off for may years, so I’m so glad I went ahead and did it and would thoroughly recommend this route if you’d like to see just what Indochina has to offer.

Vietnam was hands down a 10/10. The country was so colourful, vibrant and even though its history was fraught with wars and dictatorship, the people were so kind and giving.

Cambodia is very much still a developing country and has only really been independent and not under dictatorship for several decades, this shows, as the infrastructure is just not there yet. They have done amazing things to build their tourist industry, but there is still much to do.

Thailand was an absolute Sensory Overload! I did only stay in Bangkok, so this was to be expected, however it really is a city that never sleeps. I would love to go back and visit some of the Southern areas famous for its scenery and beaches.. Watch this space 😉

My Tour was with an amazing company called G Adventures who I have used for a number of Solo Adventures. I can’t speak highly enough of them and the support net this Tour Group provides, allows me to travel to parts of the World I would never have been able to.