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A BIG HELLO FROM VIETNAM!
Hope you are all well! Just to give you all a quick up-date with what weve been up to since we last wrote! From Chiang Mai we took an overnight minibus to Laos and arrived in Vietianne. We wanted to do the two-day slow boat trip down the Mekong river, but there had been some local flooding the week before and decided against it.. We only stayed there for a couple of nights as there was'nt an awful lot to do there but we did need to get our Vietnam visas sorted so we got them arranged and then left for Vang Vieng which was a 3 hour bus trip.
We then spent 4 days in Vang Vieng just chilling, it was quite touristy and full of Westerners who were either tubing or chilling out watching 'Friends' in the numerous restaurant bars! We visited the caves and lagoon there and did one day tubing which was enough! Brilliant fun but my god very dangerous! The week before we arrived they had suffered flooding and there had been 11 deaths, im not joking! You basically hire out a tube (Rubber ring) and a tuk-tuk takes you to the beginning of the river where the first bar is. From there you can visit the bars along the river and the locals pull you in from the river by chucking you some rope! Me and Dal managed to get ourselves to some bars after attaching some rope to our tubes so we did'nt lose eachother which nearly happened! There was a huge metal slide at one bar which was pretty scary, especially as everyone was getting completely trashed and accidents were happening! Luckily we made it back before it got pitch black as it was a 1 hour trip down the river!
We then left there on the tuesday and it was a 7 hour bus trip to Luang Prabang. On the bus we met some people and ended up staying at a guesthouse with them and we spent three days exploring the city. Really loved Luang Prabang, very picturesque and relaxing! We visited the temples and went to Phou Si to view the city after climbing 370 steps! We even went bowling two nights as it was the place to go after the bars closed at 11pm. Good fun and very cheap!
On our last day we went to the popular waterfalls where there was even an on-site 'Bear Sanctuary'! We then left there last friday and flew to Hanoi in Vietnam which was only a 1 hour flight. After coming from Laos it was quite an experience stepping out of our taxi onto the streets of Hanoi! Some words to describe the city for you; Crazy, insane, mental, jam-packed, hectic, loud, and very very polluted!! It's a place you really need to see for yourselves, words just cannot descibe the intensity of it! I have never seen so many motorists on the road and there are no pavements to walk on because they are either full of food stalls or parked motorbikes. Oh and theres no traffic lights you literally have to walk into the road and the cars and motorists drive around you whilst beeping their horns it is insane!! However on a lighter note we are staying in a lovely guesthouse and have just come back from a boat trip to the famous Ha Long Bay which was lovely. We booked a two day/ 1 night trip where we visited some fantastic caves and kayaked around the floating villages where locals have been living for years. The boat was lovely and we had some great food! Since weve been in Hanoi weve also been to a Water Puppet Show which is a vietnamese tradition and has been for thousands of years and have explored the Hoan Kiem Lake and St Josephs Cathedral. We are leaving tomorrow to go to Hue and we will then continue to work our way down the country before heading into Cambodia!
We will keep you posted when we can and will put the Laos photos on a.s.a.p!
Love us xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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