you want tuc tuc? I said YOU WANT TUC TUC.... OI BUY TUC TUC

So far so good- we have moved from Hanoi down to Hoi An after an amazing trip to Halong Bay.

We got to go rock climbing and Kayak around Halong Bay and Cat Ba bay and experience our first moped journey on quieter roads. weather wasn't great but the mist added to atmosphere of the limestone rocks coming out the water- truely an incredible place (unfortunately it doesn't look like they're preserving well so come 10 years the waters will be covered in oil from the shipping lanes) After 3 days we moved on from our Junk boats back to the hustle and bustle of Hanoi

We set out bright and early on a day trip to Perfume Pagoda- a religous pilgrimage for Buddist- expecting a nice quiet retreat after an hour rowing down the river- OH NO anything but quiet- 5km of non stop stalls with microphones and bad music to reach the sacred pagoda and it look more like a sceen out of a wheres wally book than a religous retreat- infact it was a wheres wally, spot the westerners we were the only ones out of 30000 people (and thats a quiet day for them) our photos will be in every vietnamese house as everyone stopped us to take our photograph.

finished off our time in Hanoi by visiting the Prison, an odd experience they choose not to portray hatred but how welcoming they were to american prisoners of war rather than the way the were treated by the french, for such a small prision it was unbelievable that over 2000 inmates were held there.

Next stop- HARRY POTTER BUS not literally but we opted for an overnight bus to Hoi An and well its Swayed to the rythmn of the beat not fun when lying down trying to sleep. The joy is we are writing this waiting for our next over night journey to Dalat hopefully the driver prefers calm classical music in his head than reggae.

Hoi An is pretty small and every where you go one question is always asked YOU BUY FROM MY SHOP? we gave in and bought two dresses as its so hot here and well its only gonna get hotter the further south we go.

Other than chilling out in Hoi An we went on a day trip to My Son- ancient ruins but both of us managed to sleep through the guide talking (SPIDER TEAM COME HERE SPIDER TEAM is all we heard from our guide so the ruins didnt have too much meaning hopefully Angkor will be better)

So after trekking to the beach in the midday heat,oops, we decided to try out the local taxi service, clinging on the back of a moped- we got back safely so this morning we felt brave enough to barter the price down, we didnt expect that to mean both of us on the one moped- but oh yes we were, we have never been so close to each other- or a stranger before! so the way back we thought we'd push our luck and push the price down further- it worked- but again one bike and this time back roads- no suspension and our bums REALLY hurt now-

so on that pleasent note we bid you farewell as we brace ourselves for the next Harry Potter night bus.

Kt and H
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