We got out of the taxi in Ho Chi Mi city to be greeted by a feisty local woman smashing a brick over a local man's head! Fortunately the man was wearing a motorbike helmet so just a headache for him. He tried to return the favour by picking up another brick that was nearby and tried to hit her with one too. Someone intervened so he launched it at her but missed.

We were still more than happy to be out of Cambodia tho. We woke up Ho Chi Mi City (Saigon) and were delighted to find the people (apart from the two last night) were very friendly and more than happy to help rather than just talk to you for your money.

We wondered round Saigon's huge city. We were amazed with the size of it and how many people were out 24/7. All day there were thousands of bikes and hundreds of cars whizzing past you and the streets are packed too. Crossing the road was the most fun; they have zebra crossings but pay no attention to them! You have to walk out into the traffic and then let the cars and bikes move…no swerve…around you. Its mental but after a few times its fun!!

There wasn't a great deal to do in Saigon so we planned our next move up the coast. We decided on Nha Trang but after the crash in Cambodia we decided against the bus due to fear and opted for the train instead.It took 7 ½ hours in the peasants cabin and we had a local practicing English on us for over an hour….oh and I should mention he sat on the same seat as me for the whole hour! They don't really understand the 'personal space' thing here so he was non the wiser but we were uncomfortable.

Nha Trang is a nice little town and a lot more touristy, but not in a bad way. The pavements were tiled it was just like Spain or something.There was a beach but you couldn't do much swimming the waves were too powerful. I had a go anyway showing off how big of a man I was to Rachel….didn't last long stood up the first wave crashed on my front and turned me round, the second on my back and as I gained my balance again another came crashing down on me and I was thrown into the sea followed by a load of sand! I got out after about 15 mins bored of being knocked down and was covered in sand!

By this time it was Halloween and there was a Halloween party on the beach so with it being Rachel's favorite day of the year we decided we would go. We started off at a pub that was serving rum & coke for 50p a glass! (Some didn't look like rum & coke if you check the pictures but that's what they said they were!) Then we wentto the beach party and there were decorations all over and a stage on the beach with a live band playing. It was good fun but we got on the buckets (Vodka, Redbull & Orange) and Rachel was soon ready for bed so we got hot dogs and went back to the room.

We had planned on going to Danang but after booking our train tickets we were told by the hostel owners that it would be far to dangerous to get on the train due to a storm in Danang. I thought nothing of it and wanted to get on it anyway, Rachel was petrifiedJ. The train was eventually cancelled and we got our money back anyway so stayed another night at the same place.

The storm headed down the coast and brushed pastGna Trang Rachel was up all night worrying about the storm but after being woke up by her once I had put in my ear plugs so couldn't hear anything! Zzzzzzz…………We woke up and the town was a mess, it had flooded really bad. One guy had gone for breakfast an hour earlier and was up to his knees in water!

We stayed another night and time was pressing on so we booked a flight to Hanoi and decided to miss out Danang altogether.

We got to Hanoi and found the s***tiest dive in the town but it was only for one night so stopped anyway. We booked a tour to Halong Bay for 3 days and 2 nights so waited for the morning. We got picked up at 9am and set off by mini bus to the pier in Halong Bay. The drive there was bloody mental too with busses overtaking busses one way and busses overtaking trucks on the other! All the mini busses and busses seemed to be in a race to the end for some reason…..no idea why the boats when we got there weren't ready to set off with us.

We arrived safely at 12:30 and waited an hour to get on a boat….Half a day gone. We then headed off to see a cave, our guide was awful he said that there were two caves on this island we are going to walk past the first one as that is the good one but he doesn't do that tour and walk to the second one and go in there……Righhhttttt!! Anyway all he did was point at rocks and made out that they looked like something, they may have done if you stared at them long enough but there was only one that actually did look like what he said….that was 'Mother Nature's Breast' that had "fed mankind". HA. (See pictures)

We then got told we had to change boats because there was no room for us to sleep on this one…not sure why we got put on it to start with…and we would be sleeping on Cat Ba Island the first night and the boat the second. We were dropped at the pier and waited 45 mins to get taken to our hotel by which time it was dark. Day one over with and we hadn't done much but walk around a cave.

The boat trip wasn't that bad Halong Bay was amazingly nice but it all seemed a bit rushed. We got up on Cat Ba Island the following day and headed off on a trek to the top of some hill somewhere. It was nice but due to my fear of heights I backed out on the last 15 foot climb as it was a little steep and high for me. There were killer bees on top anyway so if we had made it up Rachel would have been jumping off the top anyway if one came near!

We got back on the boat later that day and headed off into the sunset through Halong Bay. We stopped out on the ocean in a mid-sea bay (if there is such a thing) and anchored in for the night. We ate on the boat and it had to be the worst food of the trip whilst the staff feasted on fresh fish and soup we were left to rice and squid. We had a few beers on the roof of the boat and the lovely (achem!) owners of the boat turned the lights out on us……a small rowing boat appeared from nowhere with 2 Thai women trying to sell us vodka and beer. A German guy on board tried to buy some and the staff said it would be "bad for his health" if they bought anything outside of the boat we were on….basically a threat…nice hospitality. We bedded down for the night onboard.

When we got up we went kayaking around Halong Bay for 45 mins then back on the boat. We then went to pay the bill and were delighted to find additional drinks on our bill! Fabulous….they had our passports so there was no way of getting out of it so we paid up and headed back to shore. We went back to Hanoi and headed off to a bar to sip on a few beers and smoke some strawberry sheesha .

We hung around for the flight to Laos and enjoyed the best food we have had in all of Vietnam - KFC before watching a DVD in our room.