You don’t need me to tell you that the animal kingdom is full of weird and wonderful creatures. I’ve come across a few in my time, like the shaggy paunch of a wild orang-utan, or the stubborn snarl of Mongolian yak.

But what you are about to be introduced to, is a collection of animals so weird and wonderful, that they attract travellers from around the world to point and stare, and shoot videos to upload to YouTube.

Damn you goat… | Image by austinevan

These beasts put two trotters up to the norm, and make a break for stardom. If a dancing dog can win Britain’s Got Talent, this lot could go global…

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I first ventured to Hanoi last January, and was greeted by some pretty chilly weather. “It’s so cold, even water buffalo are freezing”, the lady at my hostel told me. That’s pretty damn cold, let me tell you.

Cold? In Southeast Asia? It wasn’t meant to be like this! I whimpered to myself.

So it was with reluctant feet and a several layers of clothing that I set off to explore Hanoi. Within 10 minutes, I was so glad that I did.

Before I knew it, I’d been wandering for hours, happily lost in the backstreets and marvelling at the masses of motorbikes, breathing in the scent of scrumptious street food and overwhelmed by the beauty of the French architecture.

Hanoi is a truly wonderful city. In fact, it deserves a big High Five! So here are five of our favourite things to do in the City of the Soaring Dragon.

Jump into beautiful and bustling Hanoi

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Everyone knows that wherever you go in the world, islands are where the cool kids hang out. Australia’s only island state, Tasmania, is no exception.

A verdant blend of powerful mountains, mulched walking trails, dense forests, enigmatic coastlines and scurrying wildlife, Tasmania is a wonderland of adventures.

And we’re bringing you the opportunity to travel there, to take up a position as a crew member of the famous Bruny Island Cruise team. If you’ve always fancied a life at sea, then this job is for you!

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It’s the travel battle of the fortnight: one of our loyal Blog readers takes on a member of our fabulous staff, as they both face five tough travel questions that will test their experience, opinions and aspirations. Who’ll come out victorious? There’s only one way to find out…

Do you want to step into the Gauntlet? Then drop us an email, and we’ll get back to you with five travel questions to answer.

Now, let’s meet this week’s brave contestants.

Running The Gauntlet this week, it’s…

Travel lover Nicola Dunkinson from Hampshire! Here’s Nicola cycling along the beach in South Goa.

Nicola gets active on her travels in India

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It’s shaping up to be a busy old week here at STA Travel HQ, but our Experts are never too busy to answer your questions. They’ve been hard at it, pulling their biggest travel tricks out the bag, and conjuring up some solutions to your travel queries.

They’re here every week, so if you’ve got a travel related question you just can’t get outta your head, let us know about it! Email us, and we’ll pass your question onto the Experts.

This week’s question comes courtesy of Lisa from Aberdeen. Take it away, Lisa:

Hi Experts! My boyfriend and I are flying to Mexico City this September and have 3 weeks in which we would like to see some of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Can you offer any advice on the best way to see all of these countries in the time that we have? Lisa, Aberdeen

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