Hello from Nha Trang!

Just arrived here this morning after a lovely 12 hour bus ride so just having a chilled day today. Thought we'd update you with our progress through Vietnam so far ...

We first arrived in Hanoi on the 14th. Unfortunately, we only have about 2 weeks to fit in the whole of Vietnam and could easily stay here for months! Di, totally understand why you rate Vietnam so high, great people, great food (and beer!) and awesome cities. So we're spending a fair few nights on buses so we have more time to explore. It also means we haven't had much sleep so apologies if this doesn't make much sense.

Hanoi is such a contrast to Laos - never seen so many scooters before! We can now understand why we were getting so many tips on how to cross the road - definitely is an art to it - or in our case just go go go and hope for the best! Spent a day exploring and sampling many a cheap fresh beer (7p a glass) sat on tiny plastic stools. It was great, by the time your glass was empty there was already a full one waiting for you - lovely.

The next day, we went on a 2 day, 1 night trip around Halong Bay. Met a really sound couple from NZ who were also staying in our guest house. The islands are really beautiful. Went kayaking and tried to explore some small caves but just ended up getting stuck! Walked round some bigger ones which were pretty cool. Spent the evening drinking Delat wine (not recommended!) and vodka on deck which was good fun, although don't think we've timed Vietnam very well weather wise as it was a bit nippy out at sea - hoping for warmer climates further south!

We then bussed it down to Hue, where it was pretty damn wet! So it was matching waterproofs on for the day - will stick some photos up soon so you can see how attractive we looked! We both had a cyclo ride to visit the Royal tombs. Felt really bad as it was only a couple of old boys peddalling away while we just sat there and there were a fair few hills. Kush did get out and push his cart but Cat wasn't allowed. At the end they wanted a tip and said "you tip, you very heavy!" How rude!

The next day, we went to board the bus down to Hoi An and saw a familiar face ... Stefan (one of the Danish trio) was on there! Turns out the girls were still in Hoi An so we were all able to meet up again in country number 3 - small world! We totally feel in love with Hoi An and didn't want to leave. It's a really relaxed place and the people there were lovely. Have to admit we spent most of our time buying clothes (why did no-one warn us about this because we now have no money left!!) You can get anything made tailor fitted and for so little money it's amazing! Cat went in just to buy a couple of things and left with half the shop! Kush bought 6 suits - mainly gifts for family but it was crazy! And yes Greebo, you can even get any type of shoes made for you - think we were actually living your fantasy!

It was Sofie's birthday (one of the Danish girls) on Saturday so we had a big night out with lots of fresh beer. Ended up in a discotheque dancing to happy hardcore - man that beer is good! Didn't get back to the guest house until 04:30am and then up at 08:45am - definitely out of practice! Also not the best idea when you have a 12hr bus journey to endure!

That's as far as we've got so far. Nha Trang seems pretty touristy but not as busy as we thought which is good. Heading out tonight for an Indian i think (Kush is missing the Indian food!) and then to take advantage of a few drinks promo's - well, it would be rude not to! Hoping to check out a few of the islands tomorrow and maybe rent a scooter for the day to explore - we'll let you know.

Hope everyone is well and happy. Keep the messages coming - Mat and Nick your messages cracked us up!

Lots of Love

Cat and Kush x

P.S, again no Vietnam photo's yet so this one will have to suffice!