So, I'm not even a month in and I'm already neglecting my blog... In my defence, the past 3 weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind! It is our last day in Vietnam today - we board a sleeper bus to the Laotian captial Vientiane tonight, in anticipation of 20 hours of bus joy.

We have been very busy in Vietnam, travelling through Chau Doc (where we chilled in hammocks at the top of Sam Mountain), Saigon (too many mopeds for my poor brain to cope with), Nha Trang (beautiful beach where we ate local BBQ clams and drank sugar cane rum - tasty!), Hoi An (very pretty Colonnial streets filled with gorgeous dresses), Hue (rather dull with the very notable exception of the huge Forbidden City) and Halong Bay (very cloudy weather made the islands seem rather mystical). Throw in 3 sleeper trains and some long bus rides, and you have a very brief summary of our time here.

Hanoi is just as crazy as the rest of Vietnam - there are mopeds and markets everywhere, and crossing the road is definitely an adventure sport. Where there are green patches it is very pretty and verging on tranquil (if you can avoid the Asians with cameras who have apparently never seen anyone with white skin before), but generally it is very dirty and busy. Certainly the strongest impression that will remain with me is the anarchy of the roads - the locals drive on whatever side of the road takes their fancy, appear to go out of their way to disobey traffic lights and aren't adverse to driving on pavements (that is when the pavement isn't already being used as a pop-up restaurant or impromtu bonfire...

Very much looking forward to the more laid-back approach of Laos...