HALONG BAY, VIETNAM - Our journey to the land of the “stone dragons” began on a disappointing note one clear autumn morning.

CU CHI, VIETNAM - It’s not hard to pick out the tourists brave enough to have crawled through one of the narrow tunnels that were used so successfully by Viet Cong guerilla fighters in the Vietnam War.

HANOI, VIETNAM - It was just past 7 a.m. but already the streets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter were clogged with thousands of noisy little motor scooters, the transportation of choice for the six million citizens of this lovely capital, also known as the City of Lakes.

SAPA, VIETNAM - The gentle swaying of the Victoria Express rail car awakens me in the early hours of the morning – when the darkness of night begins to give way to the beginning of day.