So, Vietnam. What did we think?

A fantastic country. Anyone basing a 2 or 3 week itinerary on the 'H''s of Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hue and Hoi An simply couldn't fail to have a blast.

The scenery's pretty special, particularly in the north, the food is the best we've had on the entire trip, and the people are straight out of the top drawer - kind, cheerful, and in a lot of cases, laugh out loud funny.

Bearing in mind that less than 40 years ago this was a divided nation with both sides attempting to bomb the crap out of each other, there seems to be an incredible optimism and energy about the place.

Of course, the whole communism thing in Vietnam is a nonsense these days. You do see some army types wearing sour expressions and hammer & sickle armbands, but unlike their counterparts in Laos they don't seem to instill any fear among the wider population.

No, everyone else is way too busy to bother bowing down to the big red flag - too busy making a buck or having a laugh.

So we'd recommend Vietnam to anyone, as long as they avoid Saigon.