Well we arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday afternoon with no real idea of what to do or where to go. We got chatting to a Canadian guy who had been before and he recommended a hostel for us to stay in. Instead of getting a taxi we jumped on a local bus for about £1 each and headed to the old quarter of the city.

We got off the bus when they started pointing and shouting at us and were instantly mobbed by taxi drivers and hotel owners. On a side note, I had ripped my shorts from my zip down to my under region in the airport and as I got off the bus an old Vietnamese bloke stuck his finger in, had a wiggle around and started laughing! I thought I'd let him have a moment before knocking his hand away.

We ended up in a taxi to a hotel which offered us a room for $8 a night for the 2 of us so we snapped it up. Only to later see the hotel that had been recommended to us and feeling like we had missed out as it was full of young, good looking, international travellers.

That night we found a local restaurant which barely has an English menu, so we had to order by pointing at other people's food. The food wasn't great to be honest, it was greasy and more bone than meat, but the beerhoi, freashly brewed beer, went down a treat!

After sleeping for about 11 hours we finally made it out to see Hanoi the next day. I really didn't like the place; it was dirty, smelly, humid and hectic. September 2nd is the Vietnamese independence day do there was loads of buzz around the place but we missed the evenings celebration and firework display because we were sorting out travel plans.

Friday morning we got up at 7 and went on a 2 day boat trip to Ha Long Bay which was really nice. Randomly, we were even on the trip with an Argentinian couple who we had been trekking with in Thailand and tubing with in Laos - small world. The trip was really good as we visited some ancient caves and the floating village on the first day but our tour guide was an absolute arse! He had overbooked the trip and was really rude and abrasive with everyone and only seemed to calm sown when an Irish lad threatened to kick his head in. The night on the boat was really fun though. We moored up in the middle of the sea and went for a swim before dinner and then sat on the top of the boat chatting and drinking until about 2 in the morning. The 6 a.m. Wake up call was met with mixed reactions! I stayed in bed until 7:30 as I wasn't too fussed about breakfast, which turned out to be bread and cold fried egg. We went kayaking at about 8 before heading back to the port to get a bus back to Hanoi.

We got back to the hotel and they gave us a room for an hour to get washed and changed and then we left for the train station to get a 16 hour train journey to Hue. We paid over the odds through the hotel to get a soft sleeper bunk which was less than comfortable but it has not been too bad as we were both knackered! I did end up getting eaten alive by bedbugs though!

We have got another 30 minutes to go until we get to Hue and are set to do some sightseeing this afternoon and tomorrow before heading to Hoi An. I just hope that the south of Vietnam is a bit more chilled out than the north.