Yes it's about that time for your fresh Gilliver's Travels installment, and this time it's about our time in wonderful Vietnam! Be prepared for a long read, cos we've been here for 2 weeks. 

So we hopped on a flight from sunny Vientiane to what we thought would be sunny Hanoi- oh how wrong we were. As soon as we got off the plane the cold hit us like a slap in the face. Now when I say cold, obviously its nothing compared to how cold it is in the UK right now, but when compared to the warmth of lovely Laos it was freezing - and all we had was a crappy fleece each! Hanoi is a great, buzzing city, its absolutely impossible to cross the roads unless you literally walk right out in front of the millions of motorbikes that calmly swerve around you. It's just a shame it was so damn cold- even our guesthouse was freezing, not much sleep was had!

The next morning we went on an overnight boat trip to the beautiful Halong Bay, 3000 islands rising from the Gulf of Tonkin and one of the country's natural marvels if you will (and I will- sorry, private joke that only a few of you will understand!) It was truly amazing, sailed through the islands, went to a fishing village and did a bit of kayaking. The crowd on the boat weren't as young and as up for fun as we had first hoped but we ended up entertaining ourselves with a bottle of wine and endless games of hangman- although it was hard for me to win when Ravi was thinking up non existent films like 'three weddings and a funeral' :-|

We made our way south to Hue on a 15 hour, yes FIFTEEN hour night bus with little sleeping compartments built into it (not enough leg room for me though). We thought it would be warmer there. We thought wrong- plus it rained the whole time we were there although we managed to squeeze in a gander around the Imperial City without getting too wet. This is despite the fact we got ambushed by some scary ladies trying to sell us waterproof macs. Ravi put our brolly to one side when getting out her cash to pay for the macs and before we realised it one of them had legged it with our brolly! All we could do was shake our fist in the air 'why u pesky lil!' as she disappeared into the horizon on her scooter laughing an evil laugh. Still in the scheme of things we got off lightly and have heard of peoples bags and wallets being stolen. 

Next stop was a 3 hr bus journey (walk in the park) to Hoi An which we LOVED. Such a pretty little town that we cycled around and had actual warmth! Hoi An is THE place to go to get tailor-made clothes, anything, any colour, just describe it or take in a magazine and they replicate it at ridiculously low prices, we were in heaven I tells ya! We have a box of tailored office wear winging it's way back to the UK which they said would arrive in 4 months time, if we decide not to go back to office jobs, a fat lot of use they will be! We squeezed in a trip to My Son (I found it funny to keep saying 'go on my son!', yes I'm an idiot), set within the jungle - the most important remains of the Cham empire in this area. Most of it was ruined by American bombs during the war but what was left is still beautiful and set in idyllic surroundings. 

So a week of relaxing and no partying had passed and we decided it was time to party hard so we went further south (10 hr night bus!) to Nha Trang, a popular beachside party town. Muchos fun was had and many great people were met including Matt, an actor from Oz. I jokingly asked if he had been in Neighbours or Home and Away and he'd actually been in Home and Away! We met some lovely Chilean girls, another couple from Aus and Lina from London. 

We had a little nap on the first day. I got up from my bed and smoothed myself down as you do, only to feel something foreign and not my normal shape. I whacked it off and saw a friggin GECKO (mini lizard type thing) fall to the frigging floor!!!! This is the same type of gecko we freaked out about when there was one on the ceiling of our Bangkok hotel, hanging off my arse!! The thought of it still makes me shudder, unbeknownst to me, it was spooning me during my nap the cheeky b*****! Now i constantly think theres one on me and ravi wishes I had never told her. Eurghghghghhgh. 

 The first night was a messy pub crawl ending up in the main club there (gold old Sailors club) so we decided to take it easy the next night. Whenever we officially decide to take it easy, those nights turn into the most raucous ones, and so it did! It involved us meeting Aussie Paul, a gay American/vietnameze guy, a Tongan and Jason who is 6' 8'' and the tallest person we've ever seen in real life. Ended up drinking out of the lethal 1 dollar jars they do there and most of the night became a blur for me. On the way home we witnessed a guy by himself getting ambushed and nearly mugged by about 5 Vietnamese women who literally jumped on him, pretending that they were all having a laugh when he was in the middle of the scrum clearly screaming for help! Stupid idiot that I am, I try and jump into the scrum to get them off him only to be repeatedly pushed by one of them. They ended up running off, scary stuff! 

We thought the night had ended but just as we were about to go to beddy byes, someone on a balcony beckoned us into their dorm, that someone was Mike from the Wirral. We ended up drinking with him and his crew, terrorising those who were asleep, as we do, until one of the hotel workers came up and started shouting at us, calling us animals (there were a few smashed bottles on the floor) needless to say we scarpered to our room for a much needed sleep. 

Worst hangover EVER (for me anyway!) the next day so lay on the beach and slept it off, ready for the 10 hr night bus south to Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon where we finally saw sunshine after 2 weeks!! We paid a visit to the war remnants museum- harrowing stuff. The next day we went on a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels- a tunnel network made by the Viet Cong during the war. A pleasant surprise was bumping into Mike and crew on the tour. Of course, me and Ravi didn't go into the tunnels- we are both claustrophobic and it was seriously our worst nightmare. We looked like pansies but there was NO way we could do it without freaking out. After the tunnelage we had the opportunity to fire guns, which of course we lapped up- 10 bullets of an AK47 and 10 of an M16, loved it, but it was truly deafening and Ravi managed to hurt a shoulder a bit from the kickback but was secretly proud that she had a "gun injury"!

Met up with Mike and crew later that evening and also bumped into some folks we met in Nha Trang so we thought we'd have a few bevvies and celebrate ravi's bday as it was the next day. Thats the great thing about travelling, you meet so many people along the way and you keep bumping into them in different countries. We found a place that did double vodkas for a dollar and we all fully took advantage of that! After making ravi stand on a chair and singing happy bday to her at midnight we thought we'd go to a hip happening club (or so we had heard) called Apocalypse Now. It turned out to be full of old men and Vietnamese prostitutes which probably explains why I got told off for taking any photos in there! We ended up staying out till 3am, grabbing some street food and knocking out. The next day involved a 6 hour bus journey to Cambodia which is where we are now! 

Very impressed with ourselves for seeing everything we wanted to in Vietnam in the space of our estimated 2 weeks- result!