Hanoi - Hoi An .....Top Gear remade!!

Arriving in Hanoi and in the taxi from the airport we could easily have turned around and gone straight back to Thailand! HONK HONK, BEEP BEEP!! This is all we heard during the half hour ride to our guesthouse. It turns out that honking your horn to let people know you are coming or to get them out of your way is customary in Vietnam due to the large number of motor cycles in the city! not a good start!

Another sweltering day and the start of our sightseeing bonanza that was Vietnam. In the first 2 days we went to Hoan Kiem Lake, the Pagoda Ho Chi Minh Mausoeum and god knows where else! We unfortunately couldnt see HCM as he was on vacation, he was apparently sightseeing in Madame Taussards gettinga few repair jobs while he was there ;)

On our way back putting our life at risk each time we attempted to cross the road, some crazy vietnamese woman on her mobile phone sent Bina flying, landing awkwardly but amazingly back on her feet within seconds, as the woman quickly glanced back over her shoulder just to check that she hadnt actually killed someone as she sped into the distance. A few hospitals later and many dollars the wrist was fractured and in a support and sling where it should stay for the next 4 weeks!

Our first real backpackers experience came when we went on an action packed boat and island trip to Halong Bay. 2 days filled with fun, food and lots of alcohol, thats how it was sold to us!! Unfortunately any activities were off the cards for Bina as the bike incident happened the day before we left! Beca though managed to enjoy kayaking, cavin g and even diving off the top of the boat into very salty sea water after midnight! but dont worry, her bikini managed to stay on after some jiggling under water before she surfaced! Arriving on the Castaway Island the next day we enjoyed the envious task of sunbathing! Here we met the first of the 2 members of our soon to be Vietnam travelling buddies, Will and Emma. they were already castaways on the island. Will, a art student frm Kingston and Emma a radiologist from Nottingham. We also met some great people from OZ and Ireland too!

The night after we were subjected to our first sleeper bus experience from Hanoi to Hue. We were told that we would each get sleeper beds but this didnt end up being the case! Vietnamese people getting priority got most of the single sleepers so we ended up on the back row which consisted of a long matress that slept 5 people! We were lucky enough to have a decent guy on the back row with us, our next travelling buddy, Russ AKA Farmer Joe! (He lives on a farm in Herefordshire) We also met Rich, a guy from Manchester, on the bus too, he kindly helped us carry our bags as he saw bina struggling with one arm and becca carrying the two big backpacks! good old Johnny bravo ;)

We stayed at the backpackers hostel in Hue, which was pretty decent as fara shostels go. The only problem with the first 2 days of Hue - it rained!! but we did manage to do a bar crawl, us two and the boys down the street where our hostel was! Well we call it a bar crawl, there was only 2 bars on the street!!! Least to say it wasnt much of a crawl rather than a sprint, but Becca did get her first tasting of the most amazing dessert - homemade chocolate mousse!! I think she enjoyed it!

We had an amazing day driving round the tombs the next day after Will, Emma and Sally arrived from Hanoi. Us two girls and Russ decided to tour the city on the back of motorbikes and the others went by bicycle. To say Bina was nervours was an understatement!!! I think the scariest part was going over this really narrow creaky bridge that went acros some nasty brown river, one wrong move by the driver and we coulda been over the sides! After having such a good day we decided to definately do the top Gear tour down the coast to Hoi An the next day.

OMG guys, what can we say it was AWESOME!!! Winding cliff side roads, sheer drops, mini watefalls cascading the road side. Its hard to describe the scenery and the beauty of it. Becca took the driving seat for part of the way and scared her rider as she went full throttle across a roundabout lol!! We travelled so many miles, through Da Nang, the beach was so nice. We arrived on our bikes in Hoi An later that evening, our bags that had gone down with the bus had been kindly left at the side of the road!! he first time we hadnt booked any accomodation and the place we were dropped off at was full!! So for the first time we are trudging the streets with our heavy bags trying to find somewhere to stay, us two, Russ and the Irish guys from Halong bay! Luckily we found a cheap hostel, with a triple room - sorted!! Dinner and a kip after such a long day, we had arrived in Hoi An!