Last time I wrote was in Hoi An, that seems so long ago, I've been doing so much! I travelled to Hue next with Bianca, we stayed 1 night, I dint like it there much, it was a bit boring, just a citadel and a few temples on the Perfume River boat trip. So we made our way up to Ninh Binh which was awesome, only for a day but it was great! we hired a moped and took turns driving, the scenery was stunning, we got a boat down a river surrounded by limestone cliffs and went underneath some of them. Also climbed up one of them, (very steep and therefore very sweaty work!), was a great day. we got a bit lost looking for the ancient city but it didnt matter cos it was such a cool drive.

THat evening got the train to Hanoi which I actually quite like a far as cities go but maybe I'm just getting used to SE Asian cities now! I did a 2 day trek to Sapa from here where we got overnight trains there and back. The middle night was spent at a homestay (where birthday celebrations began!), we had a huge feast with some delicious food and rice wine!! The trek was really hard work but it didnt matter cos the scenery was just fantastic. The tribal ladies come along with you and help you along the slippery bits (they just jump along with no problems!), they then go crazy at lunchtime trying to get you to buy loads of random stuff from them, really funny!

I then did a 3 day trip to Halong Bay for my birthday, had such a fantastic time, the boat had 30 people and everyone was really good fun. On sunday we arrived on the boat - its really big with nice rooms and a sunbathing deck. Everyone jumped off the top of the boat which was really funny and we went kayaking to some caves. That evening we had a huge party on the boat and played lots of games and jumped off the boat some more! Monday (my birthday) we arrived at the beach where we spent that night, it was sooo hot, spent the day relaxing in hammocks and swimming. In the evening after a delicious bbq we had another party with musical chairs, obstacle courses, swimming and salsa dancing!!

On the 12th I got the plane from Hanoi to Luang Prabang in Laos. I love it here, its so laid back! bars close at 11.30pm so everyopne gets a tuk tuk to the bowling alley as it stays open till 3am. Luang Prabang town is really nice, very quiet and easy to walk to all the attractions like museums and temples. I went on a white water rafting trip down Nam Seong River, sooo much fun, did class 4 rapids and some of the smaller ones we swam through!! Also visited a waterfall where you could jump in off a big rope swing. Today I went to an elephant camp where I learned to be a Mahout! I sat on the head and learnt to say different comands to make it move, we also took them down to the river to swim with them - amazing experience, I will never forget that!

Tomorrow I am heading South to Vang Vieng. xxx