I had such a good last week in Ho Chi Minh City and was sad to leave. I had to opportunity to join another AIESEC project, Hope For Children, and visit an orphanage in Saigon. It was small and housed only boys, 16 in total, aged from 8 to 17. It was my first trip to an orphanage and I was a little surprised as it wasn't amazingly clean and the guy looking after the boys didn't look much older than me really. But it was a roof over their heads and they all seemed quite happy to be there. The Hope For Children Project had orgabnised games and activities to do with the boys, which I took part in, and it was a great way to spend an afternoon. It was quite tiring though - I don't think I could do that 5 days a week like the project team will be doing! The next day I got to visit another orphanage with my project, which houses children with HIV. It was a bit of a trek to get there, but it was worth it. I was so impressed withhow clean it was and how well the children seemed to be looked after. The children we saw were really young and were absolutely adorable! Some had lost their parents to AIDS and others were abandoned outside the orphanage or in hospitals. It's so sad - they were all so cute and didn't deserve to be abandoned at all! We were told that while they were getting treatment, most would only live to about 15 years old. The visit was super short as it was government-owned orphanage and foreigners need special permission to visit as the government don't want to risk them teaching children anti-communist things, so we visited illegally. After that visit I made my way across town (with some confusion over buses where I had the whole bus stop trying to help me at one point) to pick up my laptop so that I could then sell it. Selling the laptop was really hard as shops weren't interested in something so old and broken, so I got barely any money for it, which was a shame as I was donating the proceeds to charity, but I guess something is better than nothing.

On Tuesday 17th May I went on a two-day trip to the Mekong Delta with Sarah, Daria, Grace and Kim. Our tour guide on the first daywas really good and we cruied along the river on a rickety old boat, visited a brick factory, places where they make honey tea and coconut candy and had a lunch of fresh fish. In the evening we went for dinner at a place near the river in Can Tho and walked around exploring the area. We wanted to find a coffee shop to sit in which was proving really hard until I saw a sign saying 'Donut' and, like typical tourists, we followed it as it was the only English word around. But it worked! The next morning we headed out early to a floating market, which was bigger than I expected and was pretty cool as we pulled up alongside another boat and clambered across onto itto buy fresh pineapple. We spent a lot of time on the river and also visited an orchard which was actually really interesting as I had no idea how half the tropical fruit grew. The whole trip was great and made such a nice change from Saigon.

I had my last workshops on the Thursday. They were in an English teaching centre, but were for students from the Foreign Trade University that my Vietnamese friends attend. The workshops were small, but it was good as we were all really relaxed and messed around doing AIESEC dances between them (a video of which has unfortunately ended up on youtube!). Daria kindly let me do one last condom demonstration, which is actually her part, but which I did before she arrived on the project. Itwas perfect last day and in the evening I had a farewell dinner at a restaurant which only employs street children or people from severely disadvanted backgrounds, teaching them English and how to work in hospitality. It was a little expensive, but a really lovely place and a worthy cause. Afterwards Daria, Kim and I wandered around and had a drink outside Ben Thanh market. It was such a nice last evening in Saigon. The next day was spent packing and getting organised for the next part of my travels.

I moved on to Mui Ne from Saigon, which is a small beach resort town. I stayed in a backpackers hostel for only $5 a night, which was actually really really nice. I arrived in the evening so there weren't many people around, but I had dinner with a Dutch couple, Richard and Vera, who I met on the bus. They're seriously nice people and I didn't feel like a third wheel at all. I stayed in a dorm that night, my first one ever, and it was cool as nobody was particularly noisy when they came in. The only interesting thing was waking up in the morning to find that one fo the guys had brought a girl back, and neither of them had any shame about having sex in a room with 5 other people there! I was desperate for the toilet but didn't want to move and disturb them so pretended to be asleep until they were done. It's weird as I should probably be shocked but just found the whole thing really funny - it's a good anecdote anyhow! The next morning I moved into another room as Safir, Sarah, Daria and Grace were coming to join me that evening. I went for a walk and explored, then in the afternoon there was a pool party in the very small pool at the hostel. It was great, the drinks were cheap and I met a load of people there. They played drinking games in the pool, nothing too heavy though, and I missed out on the first as I was wearing my contact lenses but took part in the second which involved piggy back rides and pushing a bottle of drink along with your nose. The hostel organised dinner for everyone every night, followed by a bar crawl, so we all went to dinner together then the other interns joined me when we got to the first bar. It was a fantastic night with plenty of drinking and dancing. The next day the 5 of us took a tour to the sand dunes, stopping off at a place called the Fairy Springs on the way. The Fairy Springs was a river that you walked up, which was really pretty and surrounded by three different colours of sandstone. The only problem there was that little boys follow you whether you want them to or not and act as a guide, even though you don't need one, then beg for money at the end of it. Daria gave our boy 10,000 dong and he then kept saying 'more money' and 'i have to pay for school', which was absolute rubbish of course. We then got to the white sand dunes where Sarah and I hired a quad bike. It was a bit scary but great fun, and you could also hire a sled and go down the dunes on that. We all got completely covered in sand but had a great time. We then visited the red sand dunes, but by that point we just thought 'great, more sand' so didn't spend too long there. That night the whole hostel went for dinner again but this time it was a bit of a disaster. It was a barbeque, but it took two hours to get the first dish, there wasn't enough food and after three hours some people left in a strop and the hostel cancelled any further food and halved the amount we had to pay. Everyone was pretty tired from the night before so we didn't spend long out at the bars. Daria and I were the only ones who went to a bar, and the taxi there had a dodgy meter and a driver who couldn't understand us - it came to about 5 times the amount it should have done so all of us in the taxi just paid what it should have been and walked away. Daria and I walked back to the hostel from the bar with Richard and Vera, dodging rats on the way. The next afternoon I said goodbye to the other interns, which was sad but it had been a fantastic way to end our time together, and I set off alone.

My next stop was Nha Trang. The bus journey there wasn't too long and I had two seats to myself which is always good. A nice Vietnamese lady gave me some mango after we stopped at a rest stop where the food was extortionate and she saw that I didn't buy anything. I arrived in Nha Trang at about 4.30pm and made my way to a backpackers hostel that was recommended in my bible, the Lonely Planet guide. I was in a mixed dorm, which had 4 beds, and where you had to go through one room to get to mine. I went straight out for food alone after not having had lunch and when I got back I met an American guy who was in my room, Julian. I was chatting to him when a girl in our room came back, Cat, who's also English. They were going out for dinner with another English girl, Jess, and I joined them though didn't eat rather than just sit in the room alone. We all went out afterwards as Nha Trang is a massive party place. The next day I hit the beach - a great hangover cure - where I napped and read until they kicked me off the sunlounger saying it was going to rain. I fell flat on my face as I moved inside, which was embarrassing! While waiting to go back out I was chatting to an Australian man, who was quite nice. After the beach I had breakfast/lunch at about 4pm at a nice little Italian place, before taking another nap in the dorm. I went for dinner with Cat, Jess and two Australian guys, Sam and Michael. We tried to go for street food whic turned into a disaster as Jess is coeliac and vegetarian and Cat doesn't eat fish. We got served at one place, realised it was fish noodle soup, and then tried to leave which got a bit confusing with the language barrier but a lady helpedus to translate and it all worked out. After we finally got food we hit the bars.

The next day Cat, Jess, Sam, Michael and I left the main tourist trail and headed to a resort called Jungle Beach for two nights. It was absolutely amazing! A private beach with white sand and shallow water, backed by mountains, where you sleep in bamboo huts. It rained the first afternoon, but that evening we joined a group of about 20 Canadians, who were on a tour, around a bonfire on the beach. One of them was singing and had an absolutely gorgeous voice, and another kind of rapped/rhymed over the guitar at one point which was hilarious. Most people went night swimming but I didn't as I didn't want to get my underwear wet. The next day we headed to a waterfall, joined my an Irish girl, Rebecca. We followed the directions and strted clambering over massive rocks, risking our necks, trying to find the waterfall but couldn't. We looked for ages until Jess, Rebecca and I gave up and headed back to the beach while the others stayed. I got pretty sunburned but enjoyed chilling on the beach. When the others came back they said that there had actually been a path to the waterfall about 5 meters away from where we'd been looking! It was a bit of a shame to have missed it, but the beach was so gorgeous I didn't mind. After dinner that night Cat and I joined the Canadians where they had a ping pong tournament. I wanted to go swimming but nobody else did, then luckily later on one fo the Canadians decided he wanted to swim as well so I got to go. It was one of the most incredible things ever. There are phospherescants (spelling?) in the water, which are some kind of plankton that react to movement by lighting up. So as you swim there are tiny lights in the water like fireflies - it's indescribable really. We headed back to Nha Trang the next afternoon after some more beach time. I had left my phone in the hostel so it was good to get that back, and I then took my first sleeper bus - destination Hoi An.

The sleeper bus was super uncomfortable, but I slept a little. We got to Hoi An at about 6am and to save money I shared a hotel room with a Dutch girl I met on the bus, Claire. The staff at the hotel were so friendly and gave fantastic service. We had breakfast, showered, napped and then headed into the old town of Hoi An to see some sights. It's definitely my favourite town so far - really really pretty, with silk scarves and lanterns everywhere. You buy a ticket that gets you into 5 attractions of your choice and everything's walkable. We went to a temple, and old house, a Japanese covered bridge, a museum and a handicraft workshop where they had traditional music and dance. After the sightseeing Claire and I went our separate ways and I made my way to one of the many many tailors in Hoi An. It was one that the owner of Jungle beach recommended to me. I picked out of a catalogue and had work clothes made - two dresses, a skirt, two jeckets and a waistcoat. It was a bargain at about 200 pounds for all of that, tailor-made, which after a fitting the next day fit me like a dream. I spent a lot of money in Hoi An at the Tailors and buying souvenirs as there were so many pretty things! That evening I ran into the Canadians, who by some chance were in my hotel. They went out but Claire and I got an early night as we had booked onto a sunrise tour of the My Son ruins at 5am. The tour was amazing. The ruins are from the ancient Cham people and made a really nice change from other temples here as the people worshipped Hinduism rather than Buddhism. Unfortuantely a lot of the site was bombed by the Americans in the war - you could see the craters from the B-52s - but what was left was spectacular and our guide was incredibly knowledgable. The rest of my day was spent going back and forth between tailors as I also had 2 dresses made at another tailor. That evening Claire and I did a cooking class, which I really enjoyed. There were 5 of us in the class and we ate everything plus a couple of extra dishes afterwards and it was all delicious. We then wentfor a drink before heading back to the hotel. It's great as you can get beer hoi, which is draught beer, for 3,000/4,000 dong - about 10p!

The next morning I boarded another bus bound for Hue. The bus stopped on the way and I went to use the toilet, which turned out to have 3 toilets separated by small walls, though otherwise completely open! One woman stormed out, but another woman and I took the 'when you've gotta go, you've gottoa go' mantra and just used them. I only spent 4 hours in Hue as I'd been there before, and then got another sleeper bus to Hanoi, where I am now. I'm absolutely loving travelling alone - I'm free to do what I want and have met so many people. I've not got long left in Vietnam, only about 5 days, and I intend to make the most of it!