Hi All,

Sorry its been a while! we keep getting sidetracked and some of these computers are pants and soo slow! Anyhow, after our long old train nd then lng bus journey to the border we then had another 5hr bus journey before we eventually got to Hanoi. Once again the place was bustling with scooters but we instantly noticed that we wasnt being so bombarded when walking around the little stalls and shops, and there are so many stalls selling toot, its great although you cant go crazy as our backpacks can only carry so much. No shopping for us unfortunataly :-( . Hanoi was an easy little town to get around by foot and was based around a big old lake. Vietnam is famous for its 'Water puppet shows' so obviously we went and watched it. Its surprising how many people they will fit into a theatre and if you are any taller than me then you will not be sitting comfortably. It was worth seeing though and very intersting to watch and listen to their traditional music. We also went to a museum the next day which was originally a prison and with most prisons, there was some not very nice stories that went with it, but its good to learn about their history! Lucky for us we had a friend in Vietnam called Pat whom we used to work with so we arranged to meet him and his vietnamese girlfriend Trang. They took us to quaint little restaurant where we all had to sit on a platform on the floor (i didnt find this too comfy!) however the food made up for it. This we decided was our night to be brave and 'do as the locals do' so we also ordered CRICKETS.. Mmm, as you will see from our pics we were served a huge plate of lettuce wtih loads of fried crickets on top. Liz was very brave and ate quite a few, i however was not, i soaked it in soy sauce to make this experience somewhat tasty and chewed and swallowed it quicker than you could blink..but felt that was enough for me until Trang could see my empty bowl and dished me up another one.. I did eventualy eat this but when noone was looking and there was less of a build up! After dinner we went to a lovely bar, which was on the terrace of one of the buldings. As the land costs so much to buy there, people buy a small area of land and then build upwards and so we sat high up overlooking the river which was really nice (minus the rat we see scarper!) Last place for us to go was a club...and the only club open that time of night (as all bars close around 11), with great 'party music' was GC, a gay club. Great way to end the night and very eye opening!!...was also good to hear some familiar music and have our first alcoholic drink!

Our first trip in Vietnam took us to Ha long Bay, you arrive at Ha Long City and board a huge traditional JUnk boat, they were really nice and we had a great cabin. This was also the first time we got to meet other foreigeners on their travels. Everyone was really nice and it was interesting to hear their stories about where they have been and we got some good tips. Ha long bay itsself consists of hundreds of Islands which look like big hills rising out of the sea and are all a rich greeny colour. Our boat stopped for the night and from here we went kyaking and at first liz and I were pretty slow but we picked up speed and i would say we were at a proffesional standard if you ask me! then at night we were all able to swim and jump off the boat at our leisure which was really good. Liz jumped off straight away from the top deck and so I went waltzing up to follow suit but stopped as it looked alot higher once i was up there looking down. After a few agonising minutes I jumped off and pretty much landed on my side, this I was not going to be doing again! Sounding slightly corny, the evening was drawn to a close with a bit of kareoke and evan I got up there a few times to have a go!!

THe next day we carried on through the bay, it was beautiful and we evan got to see floating villiages where people live on huge rafts in their little houses/huts.. our next stop was 'Monkey Island' this was great, you literally jumped off the boat onto a beach where the monkeys were freely running about. You had to be a bit careful though if you were near them as they had a tendancy to try and snacth anything that was on your towel.. but this was a wicked experience being able to get so close to them and we got to chill out and relax in the sun! That evening we spent in a hotel on another Island, which was a lovely treat.

Our last day we went for a little trek up a rather big overgrown hill/mountain.. our goal was to reach a veiwing tower, I never went up the tower myself but from where i stood you could see all around the lanscape and other hills, it was great. Liz went up the tower and even she freaked out - i think it was about an extra 50ft higher and the metal rusty stairs went around it on the outside, and once at the top a couple of the floor boards were missing!! She got a good picture though!!

The boats too us back to Ha long City where we went back to Hanoi to pick up our bus. We have since found out that the day we left Hanoi, they had such severe weather, the whole area was waste high with flooding!!

To travel through VIetnam we bought an open bus ticket for a 'sleeper bus', this was basically a huge bus but with fixed bunkbeds in it. It looked quite cool but the beds were only as wide as one person so you couldnt really get comfy and they were a pain in the arse to get onto aswell! As with every person in Vietnam they like to bib their horns and so at 2am you d jup awake to BBBBEEEEEEEEEPPP, I just wanted to throw my trainer at the drivers head, so frustrating when your so tired. To add to the tiredness, the bus drivers stopped off all the time along the way for a break - obviously getting commission from the shops...again, at 5am its the last thing you want to do. Finally thuogh we got to out next stop Hoi An!