Hello everyone,

Got a spare half hour before our next coach trip so thought i'd fill you in on a little more detail about our time in Vietnam so far!

After a smooth flight from Luang, we arrived in HanOi what a shock, its crazy, mopeds everywhere, you just walk to cross the road...don't run, you're more likely to be hit. We tried to book in where our friends were staying, but a man at a hotel told us it was full and took us to another one 'in the same group' and were meant to go to theirs in the morning. The next morning we discussed visa's for Cambodia with our hotel and how much the trip to Halong would be with them. They took our passports and said we'd have them back by 5pm that day.

We looked around for the day, met Caroline and arranged to meet for rugby and book our Halong trip with them so we could all go together. When we tried to book this they said we needed our passport, which still wasn't back at our hotel. Gill got on a moped and went to our hotel to ask them for them. An hour later and lots of screaming she returned, and siad they were refusing to give our passports back, basically cause we didn't boook th Halong trip with them. 2 hours later, and after missing the rugby, we had been to the police and had a signed confirmation we would have them back by 7.30am. The only relief was kicking australia out of the World Cup!

The next morning still nothing, so 8.15am,when we were meant to be picked up, back to the police station. At 8.45am, they suddenly appeared...so we got on the coach to Halong and never wanted to go back again...we're learning!

The next 3 days following were really relaxing staying on a boat one night and the second on Cat Ba island with a group of 8 of us, actually felt like holiday!

We got back for 2 hours to Han Oi, then got on a 14hour coach journey, 3 hours of which was a queue in sweaty, plastic seats! Got to Hue, for a few hours, in pouring rain and then back on the bus for 5 hours to Hoi An. Which is where we are now, its really relaxed and renowned for its taylors, unfortunately we leave again in an hour to do another 14hours to Mui ne for the night, then off to Saigon.

We've walked around, chilled and been pampered today, Gill and I both having a pedicure, $1 each!. And also having her legs threaded(like pulling all the hair out), apparently she was very hairly!!!!!! Gill also had ner nails french manicured...she doesn't change!

Not looking forward to the coach but as we always say...everything will be fine!

Will update photos soon.

lots of love

Karen and Gill

xxxx