Hi all

We have been having the most amazing time which I will fill you in on in a mo. First though I realized that on the last blog I forgot to write about how Sam got chatted up for having nice earlobes! It was hilarious. We went into a bar in Hoi An and I think the staff wanted to try out some of their English on us so kept coming over to chat. Then one woman came over and started flicking her earlobe and pointing at Sam. We assumed she meant he’d burnt his ears but instead she said ‘no’ and said ‘nice’ and gave him a cheeky smile. She then went on to ask my age and whether or not we were married or if I was his girlfriend. I think she would’ve chatted him up if she could. We’ve been asked lots of time if we’re married, I think it’s seen as odd in Asia if you aren’t married at our age – Sam has had lots of encouragement that he should ask soon – quite funny to watch him looking uncomfortable!

Anyway back to what we’ve been up to. Before we left Hanoi we went on a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda, which was blissfully relaxing compared to Hanoi. We had to go on a little boat than an old woman rowed us for an hour down the river. It looked like hard work too as they row forwards instead of backwards! Then once we got to the Pagoda we unfortunately couldn’t walk up due to the torrential rain. So we donned our little polka dot ponchos and took the cable car. This did mean and annoying journey with an old Australian guy who just could not allow silence to happen even though we were all enjoying the views. I know a lot about his motor biking holiday – more than I wanted too! The Perfume Pagoda itself was mystical especially because all the rain meant it was covered in mist (and v slippy). After a brief introduction t Buddhism and touching a rock for luck – making sure to stay away from the rock that gave you children!

We booked a luxury cruise next in Halong Bay. This was sooooooooooooooo relaxing (as it should have been for the price!). The junk was lovely and we had a gorgeous cabin. We decided to go for the 3 days 2 nights option which meant we got to do lots of kayaking and see some caves away from all the other boats. The scenery was amazing, and it felt like we were surrounded by huge boulders jutting out of a gorgeous turquoise sea. Luckily as well we didn’t get any more rain after the typhoon that had swept through there the week before. Phew. We were fed to within and inch of our lives with lunch consisting of 7 courses!! I felt like I was in Hansel and Gretel and they were fattening us up to cook us at the end. To try to combat this we did the kayaking which is more difficult than it looks when Sam won’t row in time with you! I just resorted to letting him row me around. We also did some morning tai chi which was really hard work! The guy who did it was quite flexible and so could bend down really far so on the first morning when we tried to copy him you should have heard the cracks from everyone’s knees! We met a Dutch could and Danish couple too who were a laugh and a bad influence making us stay up late drinking wine and cocktails (obv we would never do such a think on our own) but we had a real laugh and think we may have been the rowdy ones on the boat. Also, it turned out that Carolina is a famous Dutch TV presenter but we didn’t know this till she told us. Ooops. We were really sad to leave this trip but we had flights booked to Luang Prabang which turned out to be equally relaxing!

I’d read in the guidebook that you can feel the difference in Laos and I thought it couldn’t be true but it really is. They are sooooo laid back. Barely a beeping horn anywhere – even in the capital where we currently are! Even at the airport they were laid back. We didn’t have enough cash to pay for the visa so they just pointed to outside the airport were the cash machine was and let us wander out. Our hotel was just outside of town over a rickety v high bridge that had big gaps in the walkway (not easy after a few happy hour cocktails and huge moths flying at you). Even though the hotel was lovely even down to the swimming pool sized bath we had to complain about the noise from upstairs. It was a French family with 3 young kids who literally bounced around and because it was an old villa we felt like they were going to land on us not to mention being woken up at 6 am. The management was amazing though and upgraded us for free to our own private bungalow with a veranda and Mekong river view! To explore LP we hired bikes and saw a few temples and lots of monks – they really are everywhere – sat in bars, on the internet, lounging around. We also went to the night market and did a bit of shopping and found a little alley way that had loads of food stalls were you just picked what you wanted and they heated it up for you – super cheap! (although not quite Vietnam prices). We went to Kuang Si the largest waterfall in the area by tuk tuk. It had been raining heavily in the night and the day before so obv Sam chose the muddiest route to the top. At one point I was doing the splits (which I can’t) down a hill while Sam was trying to stop me. Sam did try to rescue us by crossing the waterfall but it just resulted in him swimming fully clothed (after falling in – he he). We decided to turn round in the end and take the path everyone else seemed to be taking to the top. Once at the top you could walk all the way along the edge to see the cascades using a tree trunk which was awesome. On the way back down we had a swim – even I went in despite the fish and the swimming spiders (you never know I might conquer my fear and swim in the sea by the time we get to Thailand!). The next day we went to the elephant village and road elephants all morning which was brilliant! We had the oldest one there and she was blind in one eye but v cute and wrinkly. We even had a go at sitting on her neck which was harder then the mahout made it look when she kept stopping to eat and swinging her head round and spraying us with mud. Then we went up the Mekong to another waterfall to cool off (yes I did swim again!) which wasn’t as big as the other but much more peaceful (not as many 18 year olds swinging from rope swings!).

I think that pretty much brings us up to date. We flew to Vientiane this morning which isn’t as nice as Luang Prabang but we can see Thailand over the river from our hotel room. We’ve had a bit of a wander, looked at some temples, seen some monks digging holes (they have a special other outfit for hard labour – still orange though) and arranged our bus to Vang Vieng for some tubing. Tomorrow we’re going to hire a tuk tuk and go and see some sites out of town. I think Sam is working on putting some pictures on so you’ll be able to see what I’ve been nattering about.

S & S