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Hi Everyone,
Sorry it's taken a while, like we said on the last update, we've been on an organised tour for the last 12 days so its all been very hectic.
We first arrived in Ho Chi Minh City from Cambodia and met up with our group. There ended up being 16 other people, all similar ages to us so we were lucky there! Majority were from England but there were also people from Finland, Sweden, Germany, Scotland, Australia and Switzerland. Our first day we visited the old Chu Chi war tunnels and the Vietnamese war museum which was very anti-american! Ho Chi Minh is mainly just a big city- never seen so many mopeds in all our lives!!
Overnight train to a beach town called Nha Trang for a couple of days relaxing by the pool and recharging the batteries (and getting burnt).
Then another overnight train (train carriages were almost as nice as prison cells) to river town of Hoi An arriving at 4:30 am! Rooms weren't ready til 10 so we wandered around the town and saw the fish markets and river boats. Really nice to see the town coming to life and was a beautiful place with nice old buildings and peaceful atmosphere. We also went on a bicycle tour around the country side guided by a Dutch man living there. Was really amazing to see the rural side of life and all the locals were so friendly. We lost count of the amount of waving we had to do to the cute children and some even lined up in the road to give us a drive-by high five! Unfortunately for Katie they picked a spot on the road by a corner and concentrating too hard on getting the high five, crashed into a fence rather than turn the corner. Steve wasnt too concerned as he was laughing too hard. We had lovely food in the market one night and Steve found a beer for approx. 12p (which was nice apparently)! This place was probably our favourite so far alongside Siem Reap in Cambodia.
Next a bus to Hue (pronounced Huay) which was a city though not as big as Ho Chi Minh. We only had 2 half days here so pretty much as soon as we arrived all 16 of us took a motorbike tour around the countryside (we had drivers fortunately). We got to see a bit about rice fields, one-armed (famous) conical hat maker and monks chanting, and playing football, at a beautiful temple. We ended the tour ontop of a hill by an old american bunker overlooking the Perfume River, which had breath-taking views at sunset. Next day we also visited the citadel which is like a walled city with extravagent buildings where the emperor resided. The decorations were beautiful although a lot was under renovation as the Americans bombed the s**t out of it.
Overnight train again to Hanoi (14 hrs!!) and then 3 hour bus to Halong Bay where we took a private junk boat out to some of the 3thousand secluded islands. Beautiful scenery, seafood lunch and we got to explore the insides of the caves and went to a private beach where Steve climbed 400 steps to get views overlooking the beach and islands.
Back to Hanoi (capital city) next day for a walk round the town and lakes and went to the cheapest DVD shop ever! Had a bit of a night out in a few nice bars, then a beer on stools in the street and then to dodgy on-the-river club. Last night we had a lovely meal to say goodbye to the group, most of whom were heading on to Laos and now we're wiling down the time until our flight back to Bangkok.
Sorry its a long one and hope you're all not too bored yet. Still no luck with the photos but we will keep trying. Hope everyones well
Lots of Love
Katie and Steve xxxxx
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