After arriving in Hue after a 19 hour bus ride from Hanoi all I wanted was a comfy bed. The standard swarm of taxi drivers welcomed us off the bus and the constant aggro of hassling went straight over my head. I did however give in and one guy persuaded me to his hostel which sounded nice, a gamble I was willing to take. All I wanted was a private room and he said he had one for 8 dollars and breakfast was included, which seemed a good deal. A rash decision which turned out to be a good move as the home stay was ideal.

Khe San Homestay which is run by a family is definitely one if the best hostels I have stayed at in my time in Vietnam and recommend it to anyone travelling through Hue. A cultural city with history everywhere you turn with temples, ruins and tombs.

One late afternoon after a full day of a cultural visit to the Citadel I was approached by two University students who wanted to ask me questions for their studies. I happily accepted as I thought it would take a quick 5 minutes and I would be on my way. The questions and answers were slowly progressing with questions about why I was there and what my favourite places were etc. Then slowly every 5 minutes another student would join in the conversation and listen to what I had to say. After about 25 minutes I was speaking to 13 Vietnamese students about my life story and how much I loved Vietnam, it was quite an experience. After about an hour of speaking and showing 100 pictures of Big Ben and the Queen on Google, one of the students invited me for dinner and I'm not one to turn down a free meal.

I walked through the door to be greeted by another 10 students sitting round a circular table looking to be waiting for my arrival!! What had i walked into. I saw a few of the lads wearing numerous football shirts an AC Milan top, Liverpool top & a Man United shirt which was a good ice breaker to the conversation. Most of them couldn't speak English apart from one of them who I ended up having a conversation with most of the time while all the others listened and said yes once in a while. After agreeing to a game of football the day after and helping them pronounce words a few of them asked if I could help them with their homework. They were literally queuing up for me to help them with their homework I was kind of thinking I should of stayed in Hue and ran a homework & football club and charged them for each session. So the day after we had a game of 5 a side football and I was keen to show these Vietnamese lads how to really play. I felt like Messi playing against Sutton United running rings around them it was definitely a morale boost.

My last night in Hue and me and Du the guy who worked at the hostel decided to go clubbing to a local night club. I was the only English person in the nightclub I felt like a celebrity and the token white guy!! It was good to get to see how the locals party. People casually smoking weed in the club, I could see it was a relaxed vibe in there. After tearing up the dance floor and being called handsome all night by a group of Vietnamese girls my head was so big I couldn't leave the nightclub!! After playing like Messi and being called handsome a million times I could of easily stayed in Hue forever!

Next stop was Hoi An another cultural town with small alley roads with classy shops and coffee places and at the other end of the town a nice beach with massive waves it had the best of both worlds. I stayed in another home stay with free breakfast, a comfy bed and a warm shower for $5 called Cloudy Homestay. They rented bicycles for free and everything was accessible by bike. As Vietnam is so narrow and everyone is doing the same trip I ended up bumping into people I had already met previously which was always a nice suprise. One night a few of us decided to stay up for the Chelsea vs Everton match at 3am, which was a waste of time as Chelsea got beaten. After leaving the bar we had to walk through a market which was obviously closed. It was the most disgusting walk as you could hear squeaking noises everywhere around this market which were rats. These rats are the size of cats and are quick fuckers, and walking through this market made my stomach go all funny and sent a shiver down my spine at the thought of seeing a rat. We linked arms and braced the 200m walk through the dark, smelly market full of rats I had my torch at the ready. Hearing squeaking noises every 2 seconds I knew we would finally come face to face with one of these monsters. After nearly stepping on a dead rat with only wearing a flip flop I nearly caught the Plague!! It was a close call. After dodging a few of the sneaky bastards we made it back to the hostel and I knew I was gonna have a few nightmares about rats that night.

Nha Trang was the next stop on the trip which is full of Russians but with a nice beach, it's like Russia in a parallel universe without the freezing cold weather. People said to dodge this place as its full of Russians and too touristy. I don't really mind Russians and was willing to give it a chance. Here was where I tried Snail Soup and Chilli frog two of the best meals I have had on my travels.

The problem with most of the hostels In Vietnam is they offer free beer from 5.30-6.30 so you end up getting pissed by 7 and want to go out every night. At the hostel in Nha Trang they have a challenge if you can drink 15 beers in an hour you get a free night. Some lad who thought he was tough gave it a go and managed 10 before he was sick all over the place (serves the cocky Welsh guy right). Nha Trang is a nice stop off but I wouldn't visit there again, it had a town and a beach right next to each other which was good and the local food was delicious. Also here I got interviewed again by students and got called handsome once again, Vietnam is trying to get me to stay!!!

The 100th bus journey of my trip was a bumpy one into the mountains on the way to Dalat. The scenery was the best I have ever seen anywhere, high in the mountains you could see for miles into the distance.

Day one In Dalat and me and Nina decided to go for a walk. We didn't have a clue where we was going but that was the best way. We stumbled across a prison which we begged the prison guards to let us in but they happily denied. It was a relaxed prison where the guards and prisoners seemed to be best friends. The oldest officer looked 18 and like he had only left school. We were shouting out questions through a hole in the wall to find out why they was in there. They replied thieving and robbing and that they would be in there for a year. They seemed to be surprised at Nina and it was like they had seen a female in years! After the journalistic questions we scanned round the prison to see if there was a way in but sadly not.

The next part of our random trip we ended up being invited into an old local mans house for a drink of water. He couldn't speak any English but was just happy for us to be there. We sat round a small room just smiling and making gestures about how hot it was outside. Then all of a sudden the guy then decided to get his JVC speakers out and crack on Westlife - I'm flying without wings on his I pad and we were sitting round watching the live video to Westlife on YouTube. The most random moment in my time in Vietnam where a Westlife song brought people together from different countries. The guy even had a microphone for karaoke but it didn't work which I was quite disappointed about but never mind. The guy was clearly a hard worker with Dalat souvineers bundled everywhere round the house. It reminded me of my dads garage just stuffed with junk everywhere which was a storage room rather than a garage. I decided to pay 3 dollars for this 1 ship in a bottle as I liked the guy so much and then we was off on our way after an eventful day of prisons and Westlife.

Day 3 in Dalat and we decided to rent motorbikes for the day and browse the mountains of Dalat. This day was one of my best days of my travels by far!!! We had an end target of a place called Elephant waterfalls but it took 3 hours to find the damn place. Getting lost and asking for directions about 23 times it was such an adventure seeing locals and different villages. We nearly gave up on looking for the waterfalls but we stuck with it and it was worth the wait. Ninas bike kept on cutting out and she was getting annoyed, I was laughing in my head watching her suffer all the time. Such a good day to hop on a bike and just drive anywhere finding new places and scenery. Dalat is definitely in one of my favourite places on my travels.

Arriving at Saigon I thought I had arrived back in Bangkok. Bars down a street with girls walking the streets and music blaring out from every bar and club. My time here was just to round my trip off and involved a lot of drinking, balloons and partying. After bumping into people who also were doing north to south it was a good way to end my time in Vietnam. If anything I preferred Vietnam to Thailand as it had a diverse amount of scenery and the people and food were by far some of the nicest around South Asia.

The hostels were on average 5 dollars a night and most of them included free breakfast and free alcohol. If I was to say visit a country in South Asia it would be Vietnam over Thailand any day!!!

After arriving in Singapore feeling weak and tired I hopped on the train and headed to a place called little India. After sitting down on the train I decided to take a sip of water to get hydrated. I was beginning to get the feeling I was being watched by quite a few people on the train was something wrong? A few seconds later a small lady whispered in my ear 'you're not aloud to drink water on the train". I instantly hid the bottle in my bag and had a look around!! After hearing this news and looking up at the sign right in front of me which stated: <$500 dollar fine for eating or drinking on the train> I headed out quickly into Little India and didn't look back. The place smelt of curry with curry restaraunts lined up everywhere, it was like brick lane I instantly got a craving for a nice chicken tikka massala!!

My time in Singapore was short lived and I felt like booking a flight home at any point. I got very ill and was forced to go visit a doctor. With symptoms involving muscle numbness, dizziness, ear popping and a cold, I was home sick more than ever. After being diagnosed with a bacteria infection and paying a huge amount of money for medication my mind was a little bit at rest.

After a couple of trips around Singapore and to the Marina Bay, I could see how clean and tidy the place was. You also get fined for dropping litter as well as the train fines. I had to google what I could actually do in Singapore in case I got fined for doing something wrong..?

Feeling rubbish and panicking what was wrong with me, where else to visit than you're sisters new place in Sydney for a few home comforts and family time