After Halong Bay we headed back to Hanoi for a few nights. Our hotel we were staying in had forgotten to reserve our room for our return. So they called their friends who picked us up on scooters and drove us through the city. We had to hold onto the bike and our backpacks whilst being hurled throught the mad streets. We very nearly died! Honestly! The first night we met all the guys form the Junk Boat and headed straight for all you can eat pizza! It was funny, after 3 days aboard the boat eating Vietnamese food, we all had a craving for western food. And lots of it! The next few days were spent looking around the many shops. Lorna shopping again. No. Really. We even stumbled across Vietnams famous Bia hoi. Bia Hoi is freshly brewed beer served on street corners whilst you sit in the road on little plastic stools whilst the traffic moves around you. It was so cool, we got chatting to all the local guys who insisted on buying our beers. And when the beer is 2000 dong a glass, that's only 8p a pint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We really could have afforded to buy the whole road a beer. $10 gets you 80 pints!!! Next we head to Laos. We have heard many good things about Laos, the main thing being how relaxed it is. After Vietnam we need to relax! We could have done a 24hr bus journey through some of the worlds worst roads but we decided to fly. It was more expensive but as we only had 10 days in Laos it seemed to make sense. Maybe we're getting old???