So I hope everyone's ready for another update. Again, its been a while since my last post but to be honest we dont have a lot of time to sit down and spend a few hours on a computer whilst out here.

So anyway I think I last left you in Kunming in China. Since then I've been through all of Vietnam and arrived in Cambodia 2 days ago. Anyway, we left Kunming with a hangover on a 15 hour bus journey to reach the Vietnam border for our first port of call at a town called Sapa. Our main activity at Sapa was another 2 day trek which was great fun and wasnt really that hard. We had to get the bus from the hotel to the start point of the trek and on the way we drove past a bunch of local women who like to sell various handicraft items, and well, they chased us for a good 10 minutes down this hill to where we got off the bus and they then proceeded to walk with us for 3 hours all in an effort to sell us their stuff. Every woman picked one of us to 'target' and I had a rather nice lady to hold my hand down the steep slopes haha, but I felt rather bad trying to explain that I didnt want to buy any of her handbags because they're just not my thang.

So after the ladies had left us we arrived at our homestay which was very jungle orientated and humid at night, but they had a hot spring which we all went for a dip in after dinner and then later we all got drunk again and went to karaoke which was good fun (n.b. there are various pictures on facebook). The next day we got back to Sapa, showered and got ready for our overnight train to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

We arrived in Hanoi at 5.30am and quickly checked into our hotel and caught up on some sleep, before setting off later for an orientation walk, breakfast and some sightseeing. Some of the group were finishing up on their tour here, but we got another 4 new people joining us, so the group size stayed the same at 16 people. Because it was Lauren's birthday and also some people were leaving we all got absolutely smashed at a cool little bar called "Hair of the Dog" before getting motorbike taxis back to our hotel. The next day was spent relaxing and just seeing a few of the sights in Hanoi such as the One Pillar Pagoda and the Mausoleum.

Our next stop was a little town called Hue which was very picturesque with lots of very extravagant 5* hotels being built, so I can see that place becoming a popular spot for the rich people. We were only there for 2 days so on the first day we had a motorbike tour around the city and the countryside, before getting on a dragon boat down the Perfume River to see the Perfume Pagoda. I'd also just like to mention that we were on quite possibly the slowest moving boat in the world, and yet, our driver still managed to crash into a stationary boat moored in the middle of the river. So, well done mr Vietnamese driver (blatant opium crackhead). The next day a couple of us went to the Citadel which was very interesting, and was basically where everyone used to live back in the olden days. That night we all went out for a cultural dinner where we all got dressed up in the garb of the royal family and needless to say, I was decided upon as the king!

After leaving Hue we hit a small town called Hoi An famed for its brilliant tailoring. After 2 days of constant nagging by some of the girls I splurged out and got myself a tailored shirt made and two silk ties, and it does look pretty awesome and for a total price of $20 you cant really complain. So besides the tailor shops and ridiculously hot weather in Hoi An, there wasnt really much to do there but thankfully our hotel had a pool so we all stayed round there and recovered from our hangovers by it in the mornings. We had a particularly heavy night of drinking where I had two shots of snakeblood and convinced one of the girls from our group to have one with me, although she thought I said have a shot of snakebyte and after doing the shot was screaming about contracting snake aids, haha. Consequently after copious amounts of alcohol most of us got covered in permanent marker, me particularly on my face as can be seen on facebook :S. Once our time in Hoi An was up we got the train to a very western tourist town called Nha Trang. Unfortunately the weather there was not very good and it rained for both days there, but the actual place was very nice with lots of resort tyoe restaurants/bars with absolutely lethal alcohol pots that wrecked most of us, and it also had a cool mineral mud spa that we killed half a day at.

On the final stop in Vietnam we reached Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City as its now called) for two days before getting ready to enter Cambodia. Saigon was much nicer than Hanoi although it was by far the most expensive part of Vietnam. Whilst we were in Saigon we got to go see the Cu Chi tunnels which the Vietcong would live in for up to 2 months whilst fighting the Americans. We also got to see some of the handmade weapons and booby traps they would make which did not look very nice to say the least. A pretty cool part of the day was getting the chance to fire an M60 which is one of those huge ass mounted machine guns the Americans love to use all the time. After leaving the Cu Chi tunnels, some of the group went down to an area of land called the Mekong Delta where we saw cocunut sweets made, had a fresh seafood lunch prepared for us and enjoyed a canoe trip down a river into the bay. After we had finished up there for the day we took the bus back to Saigon to get some dinner and an early night. The next day we had a walk around town seeing the War Crimes museum and the Royal Palace (complete let down, it was built in the 1960's and looked like a hotel in Bracknell), before finally going out for dinner and some drinks. The War Crimes museum was very interesting and quite disturbing in some places, but I was a bit disappointed to see that is was so one sided, although I suppose it was to be expected.

So we finally left Saigon and Vietnam for Cambodia with Phnom Penh as our first stop. Unforutnately whilst Vietnam was very nice, Cambodia is obviously a lot poorer than Vietnam and there are a lot of beggars walking around, although not quite as bad as Nepal. In Phnom Penh we had some time to check out Tuol Sleng which used to be a school, but was ordered by Pol Pot to be transformed into an interrogation prison. Later on we visited the Killing Fields and saw the mass graves. On a side note Pol Pot was resposible for killing 2.3 million of his people at a time when the population was only 7 million. So after staying one night in Phnom Penh we took a bus to a small town called Chambok where we met some of the local villagers, learnt some games, sang some songs and stayed in another homestay where everyone freaked out over all the jungle noises. Finally, the next day we took a bus to Sihanoukville which is where I am now. Tomorrow we are planning on going on a boat ride to do some snorkelling, fishing and island hopping before back to the town for dinner and probably more drinks of the alcoholic variety.

So that's all for now, if anyone's got any questions let me know and I'll probably have time for my next blog when I get to Thailand around the 16th April. And I really will upload some pictures at some point, I'm gonna commit to either in Thailand or when I reach Australia... so not long!!