We had the longest journey of our trip so far, on bus, from Vang Vieng in Laos up to Hanoi in Vietnam. It took 30 hours. Ouch. The worst part (or should i say highlight) of the journey was when we stopped driving at about 3am and stayed on the coach, surrounded by snoring Vietnamese men, until 6:30am when we then got kicked off the bus, in the freezing cold (which was a shock after spending the day before tubing down a river in bikinis) and had to wait in the Laos / Vietnam border office to get our passports stamped. After nearly an hour of pushing and waiting we then had to walk about half a mile through 'No-Mans Land' in cold rain not being able to see more than 10 foot infront of us. We walked, miserable and wet for ages as the bus we were originally on drove all the asian people to the other end (westerners apparently need to walk this horrible space of land). Once at the end we then had to queue and wait for the paasport to be stamped again. Back on the bus, nice and wet, we settled in for a further 12 hours of driving. However, this is all part of travelling and something me and Claire are getting used to pretty quickly! Unfortunately for Sarah it was a whole day of her holiday spent on a bus.

Onwards and upwards! We arrived in Hanoi and it is pretty chilly! Very busy and reminds us a little bit of northern India for that reason. We had a day tour around the city and visited some of its sights. The most memorable has to be the memorial of Ho Chi Minh. A president from years ago who died around 1970, a memorial was built for him in 1973 and people visit it every day. We queued for a long time, as we got closer there were military guards everywhere with huge rifles. As we entered the building we were told to be silent, hands by our sides, we walked in and walked in single file around a glass case with HIS BODY lying in it. They have preserved is actual body and people go to pay their respects for all that he did for the country. I recently found out that every year though he has to be sent to Russia where they preserve him so from Sep to Dec he isnt there! It was the strangest thing ive ever seen, i cant believe ive seen a body that has been dead for over 40 years. The sad thing is that in his will he wished that his ashes would be scattered over the mountain tops. Instead they've kept him in a glass box.

Later in the day after the tour we hung around the huge lake that is in the centre of Hanoi and noticed a lot of fuss hapening with photographers etc. As we waited to see what was happening we were told that the Prince & Princess of Belgium were about to arrive. So we stayed and got a few photos of the royal couple (not that any of us really knew who they were!) Expecting to see the equivalent of Wills & Kate we were slightly disappointed when it was more like Charles & Camilla.

We also visited Halong Bay for a day trip. Its a stunning place, thousands of islands in this bay. There was a floating village where they even have a little school. Me and Claire went out on a kayak and explored the area- i was terrified as ive never done it before, and of course there is no health & safety, obviously everyone is supposed to instinctively know how to work a kayak... we managed to just about avoid collisions with other, bigger boats, and floating homes. There was a 3 year old putting us to shame as she paddled around the village giggling at us! We also got to go in one of the biggest caves there, inside one of the islands. It is very impressive and all lit up in certain areas. There are a number of natural formations that look like animals (elephants, dragons, jelly fish) and other things. The most amusing that was pointed out to us by our guide was a giant nipple.

So Hanoi has been very interesting and amazing to see, but very cold! Sarah has now gone back to the UK and Claire and I are now awaiting our next long bus journey... a 24 hour bus to Hue. But we are excited as the weather will get back to being hot and sunny! A big relief as we can feel our tans fading every single day, by far the highest priority of our entire trip!!

Lots of love xxxx