Sorry for the lack of entries guys! In vietnam at the moment- we arrived here on 08/08/07 with Spud (from uni) and his friend Will. We met them at the airport on the 7th of august.. brad and i decided to suprise them and meet them as they arrived at the airport from china- however.. we had no idea what time or what flight number!! we worked out which flights were from china.. and waited.. and waited.. and waited.. on the afternoon of the 6th at 4pm until 2am on the morning of the 7th!! spud finally phoned us and said he was at the airport and was very shocked when we said we were too!! we made our way back to khoa san road in bangkok and slept for hours!

That night we showed spud some sights before sleeping again and waking early for our 7am flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.

It took us a while (3 taxi rides) to finally find a place to stay- we ended up in Hanoi's backpackers hostel. Each room has 10 beds and one bathroom. certainly an experience however it was clean and everyone friendly so all is good! oh and cheap.. about 3gpb a night.

We booked to go to Halong Bay the next morning- for 3 days 2 nights. That night we found an irish pub to watch the football in as the boys were determined to watch it.

We stayed out until 4am and awoke at 8am with the woman who works at the hostel waking us to tell us our tour guide was waiting for us!! everyone on the bus was suprisingly fine with the half hour we delayed them.. however.. im not so sure that they were as fine when.. will puked all over the door of the bus!! and all over a frenceh man!! what made it worse was that a guy also on the tour, sat there laughing his head off and exclaimed ' it was pretty funny though eh!!' which made the french guy even more mad.. so he got off the bus and went back to the hotel.. poor man!

The sick was repeated 3 times.. but luckily off of the bus.. i think we got a bit of a name for ourselves from the start!

That day we visited some beautiful caves and went kayaking. Whilst kayaking, the boys decided to go for a swim.. which ended in a bit of a disaster.. when trying to get themselves back into the kayak, it capsized and filled up with water making it impossible to get back into it without it sinking!! luckily a couple helped us with emptying the kayak therefore saving us from forking out a fair bit of money to replace the sunken boat!!

That night we stayed on the boat, the rooms were great- the food pretty good too.. though we didnt realise we'd be eating the same thing for every meal for the rest of the tour!! fish fish and more fish.. and some cold chips!!

we went swimming the following day in the sea- the current was crazy! as soon as we hit the water we'd be swept down to the other end of the boat.. a little scary but fun at the same time!

We visited monkey island- only saw a few monkeys but still they were cute.

We arrived back to hanoi on the third day at about 4pm and went back to the hostel.

The following day we went to Hanoi waterpark- the weather was lovely (unlike when we were on the tour when there were massive storms!!)

That evening we went for a walk into town to do a bit of exploring- we found loads of dvd shops- all dvds about 50p!! including dvds that are out at the cinema at the moment.. and cds which were 30p, was amazing!!

Today, we went to visit ho chi minh.. however when we arrived there was queue bigger than that you would expect at wimbledon tennis!! there were thousands of people- majority vietnemese.

We decided to give that a miss seeing as we probably wouldnt have got in before it shut at 11.30am. We went to the army museum which was a tad boring! We went to the famous bia hoi- 6.25pence a pint!! didnt taste that great.. but for that price..!! Whilst the boys were drinking their beer a local came upto me and said he could fix my flip flops for me as they were coming apart at the front- he dabbed a bit of glue on the front of both and stuck them back- theyre as good as new and all for 13p!!!

fruit shake street was the next stop- a glass of fruit and a masher.. to make your own drink- a few too many fruits in one cup but still an experience!

Tonight we are going to see the water puppets.. no idea really what to expect but its very popular- we bought our tickets at about 1pm and got the last tickets- all the other shows were sold out for the whole day.

Unfortunatly we havent had enough time to make it down south which is a big shame seeing as i think that is where the beautiful beaches are, the more touristy places and where you can see more to do with the war.. but next time eh!

Tomorrow we make our way back to Bangkok and go to the Tiger Temples, floating market and the river kwai.

After we're heading back to Koh toa for those who want to to do some diving... im yet to decide whether to or not!!

hope you're all well- im now back on the 23rd august so will see you all soon!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx