Back in May, I received my first ever Birchbox and I posted alllll about my first impressions of it here. Well, fast forward to September and here we are with my latest box - I cancelled them for whilst I was away. Now, as aforementioned over here on becc4.co.uk, I absolutely love the idea behind Birchbox and I think the wide range of products they include is fantastic. I do, however, sometimes question the value if all the products are ones you wouldn't personally use, a duff box if you were... 

So, as I'm sure you'll agree, this is a very decent box indeed. I can see myself using all of these products - the hair balm and face mask especially! One thing I love about the body scrub is that it is microbead free, the 'bits' in it are walnut shell and hence are all natural.

 And there we have it, a box that I think passes the Becc4 test with flying colours 

Have you ever bought a Birchbox?

What's your favourite subscription box?

So, other than a one-night layover in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was the first place we visited on our Southeast Asia Tour, and what a place to start. We flew in from Bangkok (1hr 35m), and took a taxi to the hostel. We arrived just in time for dinner, so dropped our bags and went straight for some food. We had a bit of a wander of the streets and spotted a skybar called 'The View' so had a few drinks there before jet lag got the better of us.

Speaking of the streets, I don't think either of us were prepared for the absolute carnage on the roads. Never in my life have I seen so many scooters in one place. Let alone scooters darting and diving through the traffic and scooters carrying entire families of four.

The following day we woke up fairly leisurely and headed towards the War Remnants Museum. I'm still not sure I fully understand the Vietnam War, even after a trip to the museum, and messaging my friend back home to teach me, so definitely do a load of reading up before you go. The museum is full of photos, maps, posters and outside there are tanks, helicopters etc - it's definitely worth going to if you're in HCMC. Our other touristy stops for the day were the Central Post Office, Notre-Dame and the Ben Thanh Market. All are worth seeing and very much doable in a day on foot.

What I wasn't expecting in HCMC was a strip, Magaluf style, full of bars with happy hours. We spent our second evening drinking 2 for 1 cocktails, planning our next few days. On the way back we stopped at one last bar and I spotted 'Vietnamese Banana Seed Shots' on the menu. They can't be too bad, right? Well, let me tell you, they were awful - waaaaay more potent than Glen's Vodka, and that stuff strips paint off walls.

We'd booked a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels online (pssst don't do that, it works out a lot more expensive than the locally advertised tours) and woke up early the next morning ready to be picked up. It was a two-hour drive from the hostel, but we stopped halfway to look at some eggshell handicrafts. (From what I've read, all of the Cu Chi Tunnels trips stop here, regardless of who you booked with). Anyway, the tunnels themselves were fascinating. They're zig-zagged and on many levels, with booby traps every few meters. Lots of the tunnels had been widened and fitted with stairs for the tourists, but a couple you can visit are still as they were. Let's just say you couldn't eat a Toby Carvery and then squeeze in there. 

Our tunnel tour included lunch, so we had lunch at a hotel on the way back. After our day at the tunnels we both really fancied a shower, but unfortunately, we'd already checked out of our hostel as we were taking the night bus that evening. We were sweaty and covered in mud, so we came up with the idea of heading to a swimming pool. We googled pools and somehow ended up in a flashy 5 star hotel and soon came to the realisation that a swim there was a) expensive and that b) we stood out like a pair of sore thumbs. So, we had another google and ended up at the local swimming pool. We paid 50p to get in and headed straight to the showers, towel and shampoo in hand, flip-flops firmly on our feet. Now, we were incredibly grateful to have a shower, but, let me tell you, it wasn't a pretty sight. Mrs Hinch would not approve. 

We had dinner and then headed to the ticket office to wait for our first ever sleeper bus. Now, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect having heard some absolute horror stories but I was very pleasantly surprised. We used the company 'The Sinh Tourist' which was reasonably priced and very clean. You're given a blanket, and each person has their own bed-seat for the night. There's also a seatbelt, which let me tell you, I was very grateful for. It's fair to say the bus drivers like to swerve, which, when paired with being on a top bunk fast asleep isn't an ideal combination. Thank you, seatbelt. I actually slept fairly well on the buses, and for the price, they're definitely worth doing.

It's in an ideal location, right in the main backpacker street and very well priced. The beds, however, were the least comfortable of the 6-week trip, which is definitely saying something. There are also thin walls between the beds which rather than protect modesty just made it feel a bit like a prison. 

Wowee, what a couple of months I've had... Sorry for the radio silence over here on becc4.co.uk, but it's fair to say I've been rather busy of late. I landed back in Heathrow this morning after spending the majority of my summer in Asia, and what a blast it has been.

One of my housemates and I spent 6 weeks backpacking Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Malaysia, and then I flew out to Bali to spend two weeks there with my family. I posted pretty much everyday on my Instagram (@becc4_blog) if you'd like a peek at a few more photos and a little spiel on what I'd been up to.

The backpacking portion of the trip featured hostels, motorbikes, sleeper buses and pretty much everything you can think of in between. We covered the entirety of Vietnam by bus in about three weeks, and then flew between the other countries for the rest of the trip. We hadn't initially planned to go to Malaysia, but booked flights to Kuala Lumpur during one rainy day in Laos, having looked up where had the best weather in S.E. Asia at the time. And, oh, what a good idea that was, KL certainly didn't disappoint.

My time in Bali couldn't have been a more different experience to the other 6 weeks. There were no more hostels, hellooooo gorgeous villas, goodbye crappy bunk beds. The perks of traveling with your parents and sister, hey? We spent a week in a villa in Seminyak and then a week in Ubud in another villa, and it was great to see two very different sides of the island in one trip.

I'm going to be writing an entire blog post on each city/country of the trip, with photos, tips, advice, and recommendations, so expect to see those start to pop up shortly. If anyone has any questions on anything trip-related leave them in the comments and I'll be sure to cover them! After being in the pipeline for such a long time I can't believe it's all been and gone already? There's only one thing for it... Start thinking about summer 2019, hey?