Hello,

well the last couple of days has been very crazy. Im currently in Vietnam and having a great time. On thursday stacey and i booked a 3 day trip to halong bay which was absolutly amazing. We decided to splash out and have 3 days of luxuary on the thursday we took a bus to halong bay and from there we had to catch our boat which we would be staying on for the evening. The boat was really beautiful all made of wood and we had our own cabins with a shower and even air con!! we ate lunch on the boat which consisted of fresh crabs, fish, rice, veg, beef, lamb, and fresh fruit it was really really nice prob the best meal i have ever had! then we sailed to the sights and halong bay and first we walked to this cave which was ok. you had to have a good imagination to understand what the tour guide was talking about. he was pointing our different shapes the rocks make but think he was the only person that could see it! then we went kyaking which was so funny. i have never done it before but i think we both did well. we managed to move away from the oncoming ships quickly. me and stacey went under this cave and on the other side was huge mountins and in the trees you could see monkey playing a jumping around it was really good.

We finally got back to the boat and chilled out for the evening. again we had another great dinner on board. we were the youngest people on the ship but we were talking to the adults that reminded us of allllll the safety measures when travelling most we have heard a million times before! then we went on the top deck and just relaxed all evening it was so wierd because when we stopped for the night all the other boats stop aswell so everyone is in a big circle so one side you see all the lights and ships and on the other you see these huge mountains, it was really nice and a wierd experience. THe moon was also huge and bright pink so it was really pretty.

The next day we got woken up at 6:30 and had breakfast then we sailed to a small island called cat ba island. here me and stacey stayed in a swanky 3* hotel again more luxuary! we even had slippers, shampoo, huge shower room and really comphy beds. so was nice. when we arrived on catba we were taken to a tour of some more caves. we swapped boats to go on this tour as most of the oldies went home so now we were on a boat with younge people all irish!

So we looked around the caves then we went for lunch. none of the other girls ate any sea food so i had a feast it was great! after lunch we went back to our hotel and walked to the first beach of the trip!!! the beach was nice the sea was really warm so we just chilled and sun bathed. that evening we ate a huge dinner they gave us loads of dishes which i think was for 4 people so me and stacey stuffed our faces. all the food was paid for on the trip so we took full advantage! after we walked to a few bars and met loads of people again all irish. i think if i dont met any english people soon im going to get an irish accent! it was fun though we had a guitar and the guys say songs and it was good fun.

The next morning we were allowed a lie in until 7:30!!!! then we head back to hanoi stopping for lunch on the way but this one wasnt that nice. when we arrived to the busy hanoi city me and stacey decided we wanted to leave asap so we book separate tickets and she is now down the east cost of vietnam and i took an over night train up to Sapa.

To get to the train station was a scarey experience i went on a motabike and the streets in hanoi are CRAZY they dont have road lanes so theres about 30 motabikes in one tiny section all swaying around avoiding hitting each other. i had my backpack on so when we tilted to one side i was so scared that i was going to fall! but i made it in one peice! mum dad if you get the train to sapa when you go you have to go on a motabike in hanoi just so you can experience it. you wont forget it ever!!

The train took 10 hours and the train goes about 30mph the whole way! but i had a bed so slept most of it. one man tried to steal my ticket and a guy grabbed it off him then i was in the room alone and the guy came in asking for my ticket but i refused to give it to him so he got abit annoyed then another man came and he actually worked for the train so i showed him and he chucked the other man of the train! im the sleeper there was 2 30 year old vietamese people and one 70year old that snored sooooo load!

When i arrived at sapa i got to a hotel and decided to book a 7k hike for the same day so i had a quick hour sleep then head of to the hills. the hike was great fun although i was so tired and felt like sleeping every time we stopped to take a break! in the vally there is 3 different tribes that live there and we walked to all 3 different villages and visited people houses. it was a great experience really made me realise how lucky we are. In the houses people had one small bed which sleeps 4/6 people. the kitchen is a fire in the middle of the room. and they have nothing at all it was sad. The locals were really friendly and happy even though they didnt have a penny to there name they smiled and got on with life.

In the hills we saw some many different animals, pigs wondering around, chicken, buffilo, snakes, puppies. One point we were walking and we had to walk through about 5 buffilo and i was quite scared as they are huge but as we were walking thorough them i was thinking go quickly but then the tour stopped and i was standing like 1 meter away from this huge buffilo which was looking at me. the tour had stopped because there was a snake hanging of a tree over the path way..the guy throught stones at it and it didnt move he then got a stick and this snake jumped of the bush onto the floor right on my foot i was sooooo scared, it was green yellow and brown. i screemed a little but got told off as the buffilo was right next to me making noises and the tour guide just said dont worry if it bites you will be fine!!!! thank god it didnt bite me and it moved quickly of my foot. But it was a scarey experience one i wont forget. ever!

Tonight i am catching the train back to hanoi and tomorrow i am flying back into bangkok and going to spend a few weeks on the island. my flights have changed as i am travelling alone so now im hopeing to be home end of january! although im having a great time i do miss home lots!

so next time i write i will be either in thailand or australia!

take care xxxxxxxx