A fairy tale landscape of 1969 uninhabited islands of ancient limestone cliffs stretching away from the Vietnamese coastline, set within an emerald green bay. An overnight trip to famous Ha Long Bay should be on any tourist’s itinerary.

‘Ha Long’ translates as dragon descending and has been subject to much myth-making over the centuries. Local legend credits their creation to a celestial dragon and her children sent by the Jade Emperor to stop an invasion, spitting out pearls to form islands. They have been likened to Tuscan cathedrals or pieces on a chessboard. In reality there is certainly something beautifully spooky and compelling about the place.

Tom had done a lot of research as there were many different types of boats available, all a little over our budget! We decided to go with Garden Bay Cruise and to just do a two-day and one-night tour, as we had heard that the two-night tours repeat the same activities on the second day.

If we had realised how long the bus ride from the centre of Hanoi to the port where you reach the boats was, we may have changed our mind as the two days were quite long and time on the boat a little rushed.

Our tour guide Lee showed his sense of humour and fun right from the moment he picked us up from our hotel – first stop Singapore! He joked, saying we could get to Singapore or China if we kayaked in the wrong direction!

He managed to talk most of the way – trying to rally together all the bus passengers asking us to introduce ourselves, it was mainly a European bunch, Spanish and Italian 30 something couples, us and an Australian mother and 18-year old son. The journey took around four hours, with the obligatory stopover where you look at overpriced traditional souvenirs, crafted by locals. Eventually arriving in Ha Long City, heading straight to Tuan Chau Island wharf where we first boarded a tender to finally reach our wooden junk for a late lunch.

It was a lovely boat. Our cabin was upstairs with a balcony (we had paid a little extra for this) next to the restaurant. The facilities in our room were terrific, probably one of the best of our trip so far!

After lunch we went on a visit to Thein Canh Son Cave. It was a nice chance for MoJo to learn about stalactites and stalagmites, but it wasn’t that interesting a cave, as they go. Better was the short kayak trip that followed to a beach in Cap La area with a chance to swim in the water (which was very cloudy so no chance for a snorkel). As usual we diverted our route in the kayaks a little to collect some plastic rubbish along the way.

After a beautiful sunset, drone flight and happy hour cocktails, activities continued into the evening with a cooking class and completely unsuccessful but enjoyable squid fishing session.

We woke up and almost missed sunrise it came so quick.

A Tai Chi taster session tempted me to the sun deck before breakfast.

Then for those of us leaving that day, next was a bamboo boat tour of Vung Vieng floating village in the centre of Bai Tu Long Bay. Those staying a second night transferred to a day boat.

In retrospect more time could have been nice, but for the cost we had a fantastic experience – the first time the girls slept on a boat and they continue to talk about it! We had lunch on board after a final cruise through the islands. An expensive experience but definitely a highlight of our time in Vietnam.

Hoi An, roughly translated as peaceful meeting place – was where we learnt about the ancient history and traditions of Vietnam, gaining insight to the country’s true character during our pleasant 5 days there.

Hoi An doesn’t feel like a city, it only take a few moments from the centre of town to be surrounded by rice paddies and the countryside.

To get there we arrived at neighbouring Da Nang train station, 30km away. Da Nang is definitely a city (Vietnam’s 4th largest) and maybe a place that deserves spending some time, we only caught a glimpse of it driving through, admiring the fire-breathing dragon bridge and numerous marble sculptures for sale along the side of the road. The marble mountains and Cham site My Son were recommended for day trips.

There was enough to keep us entertained within Hoi An itself. We stayed slightly out of the historic centre, in an area with plenty of homestays and hostels, just along the river.

Ours had a small swimming pool which was a relief as we really found it hot walking around and it was great to be able to cool down after a busy day!

There were a few nice places to eat close by, such as Tuan and Nhan’s Kitchen but the best dinner we had was at Ho Hien right on the riverfront with a delicious sharing taster menu. The girls were even able to watch from a distance an outdoor show on a neighbouring island.

The historic centre is certainly a tourist hot spot, but we didn’t find it too crowded. You buy a ticket which grants you access to 5 sites which you can chose, all quite small. The area is doable in half a day, we popped back a couple of times as it was so hot to walk around for too long in one go. Highlights were walking across the Japanese Covered bridge, the museum of Trade Ceramics and the Cantonese assembly hall.

It was interesting to go into the small houses and learn about how people lived (although the whole centre feels like a museum rather than a real place to live today).

We had a great time meeting the photographer and photo-journalist Rehaan at Precious Heritage Museum. He had travelled extensively around remote areas of the country, working hard to document the indigenous tribes of Vietnam and taken award-winning, iconic photographs, displayed alongside examples of their ceremonial costumes. Hearing stories about the people he has met (women up to the age of 110!) living so removed from contemporary urban life was fascinating.

We had a very enjoyable evening walking through the Night Market (the best we went to in Vietnam), watching lanterns float down the river from the southern bank. We decided not to partake, trying to avoid creating unnecessary litter….but the site was still rather romantic and atmospheric.

Sadly with it being so close to the beginning of our trip we didn’t make the most of the wonderfully cheap and well made clothing available in Hoi An – visiting only one tailor to sew up some holes that had appeared in our rucksacks!!

Food was a definite highlight. Tom made sure to sample the ultimate Banh Mi which Anthony Bourdain famously experienced.

The speciality ‘Cao Lau’ can, as legend has it, only be made by water from one particular local well. The rice-flour noodle soup with mint, star anise and pork was really delicious, but the girls favoured and devoured – banh bao or ‘white rose’ – steamed manioc-flour parcels filled with crab or shrimp and topped with crispy onions.

We had a great meal centrally at Morning Glory but ate just as well from street food stalls. The struggle with spending evenings in the centre was getting a cab to take us home.

We decided to do a family cooking class, which included a trip to the market and boat trip and was a fantastic half day out.

We are now experts at making spring rolls, stir fry and pho beef soup.

Everyone seemed to do everything on 2 wheels – and motorbikes more than bicycles – so we decided to join in the safest way we could with the girls – by taking a side car tour!

We opted for just a one-hour tour with Hoi An Sidecar tours, which was plenty – taking us through the rice paddies and nearby villages. We stopped off for a ride on a water buffalo which was surprisingly enjoyable, they are very docile creatures, it was interesting to learn more about them. We met a few more in Cambodia!

The tour neatly dropped us off at An Bang beach where we spent the rest of the day. We lunched at la plage which gave us access to sun loungers on the beach for the afternoon, where we made an epic fort sandcastle with incredible tunnelling systems – only for it to be forcibly knocked down soon after it had been completed by vendors looking to find a spot for their customers to sit! We ended the day at the great Soul Kitchen with dinner, drinks and a game of uno as the sun went down.

I would love for us to take the credit for finding this little spot of paradise, but it was thanks to Katherine and Pieter de Kretser who stayed here in 2017 that we decided to come stay at Haven.

Getting there from HCMC was a real adventure. For starters, it was pouring with rain when we left the hotel. Then we had a mini disaster when I left our bag with passports / credit cards / phone in the taxi – resolved very easily thanks to us using the really user-friendly Uber style app for south-east Asia, Grab. This meant that we were able to call our driver to come back before he even realised that we had left the bag on the back seat!! Phew.

From then on everything was great, despite a bit of a risk: a night train ride. We booked a 4-bed cabin on a train leaving at 9.55pm, due to pull into Diêu Tri at 8.30am the following morning. Our cabin was as spacious as you could expect, with clean linen and even a vase of artificial flowers! One game of uno later we were in our bunks watching the scenery wizz by and sleep came quickly.

We even had to set an alarm!! We did arrive an hour or so late and stopped quite frequently during the night (which only seemed to wake me up!) and it was very cold on the top bunk taken by Tom and I, but in general it was a great experience.

A taxi ride later north through Qui Nhon and we were dropped at the top of the village. After a tricky walk through the hustle and bustle of a seaside community in full action mode with all our suitcases, including having to navigate around a churning cement mixer, we were greeted by the beach view which was going to be ours for the next week.

Haven is attached to the Big Tree Bistro, a beachside garden restaurant. We had the first floor room with a balcony – and could eat and drink to our hearts content just downstairs. MoJo were particularly keen on the wood fire pizza oven (even helping make their pizzas on our last night!), the food was a good mix of Vietnamese and western dishes.

The owners tell us they are about to undertake a refurb, needed but hope it doesn’t lose some of its easy going charm.

Molly and Joanna had fun making some new friends, playing on the beach and sketching and snacking outside.

We spent a couple of evenings next door at Life’s a Beach tempted by the sharing Vietnamese dinner one night and a quiz another (in which we proudly came 3rd!!).

One afternoon we hired a boat and went on a snorkelling trip to the nearby islands, where a highlight was plucking and eating sea urchins and slightly feeble efforts at paddling a circular bamboo boat.

Thanks to our great captain Hung who taught us a few things!

We made the most of having the beach on our doorstep, doing a beach clean up the first day and beach olympics / sports day another afternoon. Of course epic sandcastles were made (including a pizza oven!) and runs done on the coastal road overlooking other bays.

For our last night we decided to try out the beach food stalls, selecting various live crab and sea grape seaweed which was delicious at the time but did come back to haunt Tom and I later.

I’m not quite sure why, but for the majority of the countries we visited in Asia over the next 4 months (Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Korea and Japan) we landed in the country’s 2nd city and flew out of its capital. In between we visited beaches, mountains, monuments, islands and other towns and cities. Of course these countries have had turbulent histories and capitals have changed throughout the years, so every city has had its time in the sun. And like Sydney and Melbourne, New York and Chicago, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, cities which are not currently the capital are often the most alluring.

Within a few hours of arriving in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) we had been hit by all the key elements of Vietnamese life we would grow to love or at least get used to over the next 3 weeks.

Immediately evident as we left the airport was the ratio of motorbikes/scooters/mopeds to cars, and the seemingly crazy way road junctions functioned, which were surprisingly efficient. Cross slowly but not too slowly and keep moving was the advice to pedestrians.

Second was the incredible food. The first place we sampled it was at Pho 2000, named after a much-photographed visit by Bill Clinton in the year 2000. ‘Pho’ (which I’m not sure we ever learnt to pronounce right) is a rice noodle soup that can be prepared with beef (the signature), chicken, tofu or vegetables. Normally a breakfast dish, we probably averaged one a day during our trip.

As well as sampling a lot of street food (the best gluten-free snack ever, Banh Trang Nuong Pho Mai, a rice pancake) and taking in all the smells and sights at Ben Thanh Market, we ate in some lovely restaurants, eating wonderful food on a low budget.

On our first night we went to Lemongrass. The architecture was French colonial, the food perfectly prepared Vietnamese staples. Located right off the central artery of the city, the pedestrian road ‘DL Nguyen Hue’, which we kept on finding ourselves gravitating to. Tempted by the lit up revolving crown, we went up to the Rex Rooftop Garden Bar for a nightcap / ice cream, the spot where international journalists reported from the war and US officers and GIs would have a tipple named ‘the five o’clock follies’.

Another evening we were caught in our first rainstorm, taking refuge close to where we were staying and indulging in some western food at The First Steakhouse.

For me the coffee hit was intense. However you took it, and I tried them all – hot, cold, black, white, sweet, sour, with coconut or egg. All delicious.

We had picked a great place to stay, the temptingly named Nguyen Shack, Tea, Coffee & Spirit Collection (we soon learnt that ‘Nguyen’ is the most common surname in Vietnam) chosen ultimately as our room had bunkbeds for the kids and was in a central cul-du-sac. It was the perfect base with great breakfasts, bamboo decoration and a vast array of herbal teas, natural medicinal fruits, spirits and coffees to sample. The same family run spaces in three other more remote parts of the country in the same style.

We always like to get high in a city as soon as possible after arriving (!) to get our bearings and suss out where we want to go. The best spot for that in HCMC is Saigon Skydeck in the Bitexco Financial tower, the tallest building in the city. One of us was of course disappointed that under 18s were not allowed into the World of Heineken experience, but the view was good and they had a cyclo you could sit in and hats and costumes to try on.

We decided to skip the War Remnants Museum and got our cultural fix with a visit to the fascinating Reunification Palace. The tour began with a temporary exhibit giving background on the city’s infrastructure and history, located in the pavilion which is the only part remaining from the original 1868 French residence.

Especially fun were the communication bunkers and the rooftop dancefloor with a helipad. Tanks are on display in the gardens, which also have great kids play areas.

The tunnels were a highlight for MoJo, terrifyingly, they were the perfect size for them. The network of multi-storey tunnels, constructed between the 1940s and 1960s, ran for more than 250km and are the main reason the VietCong were able to gain control and defeat the South Vietnamese and US forces.

Our brilliant tour guide Dana gave us just the right amount of background information, explaining the different booby traps and ways the soldiers lived for months on end. Their sandals were made from rubber, and they would wear them backwards so their footprints would be facing the other direction to confuse the enemy!

Dana has her own company, Eco Straw which makes straws from plants. We are traveling with our own 4 bamboo straws (thanks Liv Brent!) and when we remember always hand them over when we order juices / iced coffees / cocktails to make sure we don’t use plastic straws. Nice to see different alternative materials used here.

Highlights of the Mekong Delta afternoon were hand-rowing in a sampan along a canal (of course we had to have a go), learning about honey farming and sampling some honey & kumquat tea, and watching ladies make coconut candy.

For some reason, I had always wanted to visit Vietnam. As we planned our trip, it was number 1 on my list. I’m not sure why. I knew I would like the food having sampled some of the incredible restaurants around Dalston in London and JLT in Dubai. Lots of movies serve as brutal history lessons of the wars that ravaged the country in the 20th century.

Some contemporary artworks gave some impression of the country we would find. A standout artwork at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018/19 was a video installation by Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba in which Vietnamese fishermen pedal a rickshaw across the sea floor, occasionally coming up for air. Screened in a flooded room, viewers had to remove their shoes and wade shin-deep in water.

Zoe Butt’s curated exhibition which formed part of Sharjah Biennial 14 had a strong focus on artists from Indochina including several Vietnamese artists. One work that particularly resonated was Phan Thảo Nguyên’s Mute Grain, which took as its subject a famine which happened in the Red Delta region in 1945. Introduced first to the landscape and its people through a series of 24 small paintings on paper hung as if floating, the main part of the project was a moving three-channel video including interview footage of survivors of the famine and children.

Amazed to discover it was a country of nearly 97 million, with a geography hugging the coastline spanning over 2,000 km from north to south. For our trip, which we gave 3 weeks, we traveled south to north (most people we met were travelling the other way!) flying into Ho Chi Min City, taking a night train up to Dri Tri, then a day train to Da Trang and a flight to Hanoi.

For the first time, we visited another venue of Prithipura Communities. Anandapura Farm is located in Kantana, near Negombo, Sri Lanka, so an hours drive north of Colombo. It is home to around 50 residents who help to farm the 12 acres of land which includes 200 coconut trees, cows and pigs.

It was interesting to understand the work opportunities open to the more-able residents, many of whom started out at the infants home, go on to attend Cotagala school, also run by the organisation.

We also observed a building at the back of the property being refurbished to house volunteers who can come on placements for 6 weeks or longer, ideally 6 months. It really is an incredible place to experience and give back, especially if you have particular expertise.

No visit to Sri Lanka would be complete without a visit to the residents at Prithipura. Tom’s sister Katherine first went to Sri Lanka in 2008 to volunteer at the infants home, where she met her husband-to-be Pieter. Pieter’s father Bryan De Kretser had founded the home in the 1960s as a safe place for children with disabilities to live. Since then the non-profit organisation has expanded to four locations across Sri Lanka, supporting around 250 people with disabilities. They provide care, education, rehabilitation and work opportunities to children and adults in need who have little or no family support.

Staying in close by Wattala for 3 days (at the lovely Villa on the Edge) allowed us to come and spend time with the residents at the infants home more than we had before. It was lovely to reconnect with those we have met on previous visits and play with lots of new children that have joined the community. The staff are always so hospitable and friendly, working tirelessly to make it a happy place for everyone.

We had a couple of hours to explore some parts of Colombo and Negombo we hadn’t had a chance to visit before. It was also good to spend some time there with Katherine, Pieter, Rehara and Deshani.

In Colombo we went to Saskia Fernando Gallery who have participated in Art Dubai before. We also explored Cinnamon Gardens and had lunch in the interesting Camden-esque area, Park Street Mews, choosing the Kuuraku Japanese Restaurant which served up delicious sushi, sashimi and noodles.

The girls had the most fun visiting the local supermarket Arpico, always something to do in a different country! We stocked up on cashew nuts to keep us going on our onwards journey, nit spray (thankfully Joanna nor Tom ever had enough hair to catch nits but both Molly and Laura had nits quite a few times on the trip, from Sri Lanka to Australia!) and supplies for Tom to cook some more meals for us all.

In Negombo we had an alfresco lunch on the beach at Dolce Vita restaurant before a trip to the post office and look around the harbour.

We decided to base ourselves in Dambulla for three nights, a town with a good range of mid-price options and easy access to the sites. We stayed at the Thilanka Resort and Spa which has large grounds, including a lovely swimming pool, cricket ground and even a tennis court. We were lucky to get rooms in a standalone villa. Molly completely fell in love with the buffet!

A major highlight was an afternoon visit to Minneriya National Park where we discovered new animals whilst on a safari. Spending nearly an hour at close quarters to a family of female and baby elephants was so special – and intriguing too to see a trail of male elephants heading towards a female in heat in the opposite direction!

We certainly learnt the hard way what elephant musk smells like… Thanks to our trusty driver and spotter Vijay, we learnt many of their names and ages. We also saw plenty of peacocks, monkeys, deer, land monitors and countless birds. The girls were also good at spotting termite holes, not surprising considering the size of them!

Despite many herds being at the neighbouring Kaudulla National Park, it was good that the park was not overcrowded with tourist jeeps.

The next day we also planned an afternoon activity, climbing Pidurangala rock which faces the more famous Sigiriya. The hike begins at a temple so knees and shoulders must be covered and shoes removed for the first part of the walk. The climb is not for the faint hearted with lots of tricky rocks to clamber over but MoJo did brilliantly, only a little set back by the windy summit! Molly went to bed that night saying she wanted to climb all the time…

Every time we have been to Sri Lanka before, we have started in Colombo and explored Wattala and Negombo, before going down the coast to a beach spot, often Bentota to the lovely Amal Villa or further south to Hikkaduwa, Unawatuna or Mirissa past Galle. The first time we came in 2008 we climbed Adam’s Peak and in 2012 we did a half-day safari to Yala National Park.

But what everyone had always said was – try the east coast….and this time, we finally did. Thanks to our trusty driver, brother-in-law Pieter (the best driver we know!) we were picked up in the middle of the night from Colombo airport and taken straight to Trinco with a couple of stops along the way to pick up some delicious rambutans before having breakfast at the Dutch Bank Cafe. We stayed at the spacious, affordable beachside 3-bedroom apartment condo the Blue Beach House, right in the centre of Nilaveli beach, the longest beach in Sri Lanka, a beautiful, peaceful spot.

We ran along the beach most days and up through the village to collect supplies for dinner. One morning we went on a boat trip to nearby Pigeon Island to snorkel, Molly and Joanna’s first experience of seeing ocean life – a magical moment for them.

Of course we had some technology teething problems, such as the go-pro running out of battery before we arrived….but we were still smiling, especially having seen turtles, black tip reef sharks and a whole rainbow range of fish! And our first spot of rain in the boat on the way back to the mainland…

Despite mostly self-catering, we managed to visit several of the nearby hotels for dinner such as the Nilaveli Beach Hotel and met up with previous volunteers from Prithi at Trinco Blu by Cinnamon at nearby lively Upuvali. In general resorts were far quieter than usual due to the events of April. Hopefully tourism will return to this special place.

A highlight of the week for us all (especially MoJo!) was seeing hundreds of dolphins after a very bumpy boat trip – very much worth it, wonderful to see them in their natural habitat.

Tom also managed to get his first taste of being back in a kitchen, spending a morning at Memo’s cafe preparing delicious Sri Lankan crab, prawn and aubergine curries for us to have for dinner in the restaurant. Thanks to Vasanti, the boss of the kitchen, for sharing her traditional east coast recipes.

On our last afternoon, we visited Koneswaram Temple at Trincomalee, a dramatic Hindu temple compound overlooking one of the world’s largest natural harbours (the British admiral Horatio Nelson called it the finest habour in the world).

We then drove further north up the coast, discovering even more remote beaches and communities, finally watching a stunning sunset from Jungle Beach by Uga Escapes.

Thank you Katherine and Pieter de Kretser for being such brilliant companions and tour guides!