Hi everyone

due to popular demand (thanks fendal) we thought we would write something about vietnam (we've been here 9 days!). Last you heard we were just going to vientienne. We took a bus in the morning, 4hrs from vang vien, and had the afternoon to sight see. We saw the arc de triomf (Patu yay) and Phu That Luang, the world precious sacred stupa and national symbol of laos! For dinner we went to a charity restaurant with a jamie oliver-style set up where they employ orphaned street children and train them up. The food was really nice, as close to fine dining as we have had so far, then we went to a pub that served magners, which was impressive, apparently. The next day we flew to the vietnamese capital. We flew in a toy propeller plane with laos airlines into hanoi which is a hundered times busier than anywhere in laos. We had dinner and went to beer corner to watch motorbikes crash into each other and had a beer in the road on childrens garden furniture. We went to Ho chi minh's mausoleum first thing the next day and to the hanoi hilton (Prison). That night we went to see the water puppets which was an experience (dave and sean fell asleep). I didn't understand any of it but the music accompanying it was good. We went to another charity restaurant, same deal as the laos one but in vientam, called koto. The food was great again and best restaurant staff we've had so far. We met our new group members and lost ian, jo, christine, ben an anita, which we are all really dissapointed about because they were the 5 people our age that we had really got on with going.

Next stop was Halong bay. It was a beautiful collection of rocks and islands off the coast of vietnam east of hanoi and our boat was amazing. It was a huge wooden junk boat (like the one in the photo above) and we each had ensuite rooms. We stopped at some caves then went kayaking in the sea and through some tunnels before going back to jump off the top deck and have a swim near the boat. The next morning we climbed a hill for great views over hlong bay then swam at the beach before going back to hanoi to catch a train to Hoi an. On the overnight train we were booked into the best cabins they had, which were just rooms with 4 bunks but the train was good fun. We went to the dining cart and they only had one meal on, which was just like a giant pot noodle, but they had lots of heiniken so we were happy enough.

(i'll pass you over to dave for the rest of vietnam)
I am going to keep my half of this blog short and sweet (hopefully)

Arrived in Hue safe and sound after the overnight train,

We went to a Kings tomb (massive) which was built while he was still alive, very hot day. Our tour guide started teaching us Vietnamese songs ("Vietnam..HoChi Minh..Moo nam Moo nam") and we then went to a lonely planet recommended place for lunch, where it started raining hard. not good timing when we had booked for a bike tour around the city that afternoon. There are a few entertaining photos of us in colourful ponchos on the back of motorbikes and leos bike broke down which added to the fun. We got to see conical hats and inscence sticks being made (I had a go at making one.....and failed miserably!) Also got a chance to get out of the city and see the rice fields and local villages. That night we went to the DMZ (de-militarized zone)......bar and had a good meal and a few drinks.

Then we were off to Hoi An, On the way we went to marble mountain which had this cave which had a couple of holes in the roof letting in really cool beams of light. You could also buy anything you want made out of marble, surprisingly.

Hoi An is a shopping Mekka, even i got a bit carried away! Me and Leo bought 2 tailor-made fitted suits each with a few shirts thrown in as well from YaLy's, while keri bought a few dresses. Forunately for me and leo there were other things to do apart from shopping!! which incuded hitting the beach (although we were caught in the rain) and also chilling out in the pool of our hotel, thats right, we are getting alot of luxury on the trip.We also all did a cooking course which was great fun, although i wouldn't say we were as good as gordon ramsey yet.

Our next point of call was Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City which is where i am writing this now. We had an internal flight to get there which was safe and sound. So far we have been to the cu chi tunnels which was amazing, we all crawled into some of the widened ones and got an idea of how the vitnamese lived during the war with america. we also did another bike tour in which we went to the war museum + the american embassy (they get really annoyed if you take a photo!!!) + the opera house and a huge catholic church!!!

All in all having a great time, next part of the trip is cambodia!!!

P.S
Emma-Jane, thanks for the message board posts, nice to hear what people are up to.
We get back on Sunday 30th August in the morning (Keri gets back late Saturday night)