Well its my last few hours in Vietnam before I fly out to the Philippines. What an amazing country this is and how many crazy, wierd and wonderful people I have met.

Since I last wrote I had arrived in Nha Trang a beach resort for a few days of drinking and relaxing. The beach actually was suprisingly nice and it was funny to watch the school children run out of school in their uniforms straight into the sea to cool down. I also bumped into Jess who I met in Da Lat and we went on a snorkelling trip. I was pleasently suprised with the coral diversity and even saw a mandarin fish although Jess didn't quite understand my excitement as its just another fish. I also bumped into Alex, Sarf, Luke, Anna and Frank from the Da Lat and the canyoning. So a few drinks for national pride were drunk. I had met an Ozzy couple, Remy and Flic, that night and we braved the hangoversand went to a waterpark, which clearly wasn't designed for westerners my size or weight. I flew down the slide and didn't really stop, straight into the barrier at the end. A nice bruise to show for my fun day out.

It was then a sleeper train up with Remy and Flic to Hoi An. The soft sleeper was fully booked so we ended up in the Hard sleeper although it wasn't too bad apart from getting woken up with announcements for every staion and not fitting on the bed ( no suprise). Hoi An is an amazing little town that has alot more chinese and japanese architecture. We decided to go get suits made and waltzed into the tailors trying to pretend what we were doing. 2 hours later we leave them the design and 6 hours after that we go back to try the suit on!!!! It fitted nearly perfectly straight away but we went back for 3 other fittings just because we loved having 3 Vietnamese women poking and proding us.

The next day Me, Remy, Flic and Jess rented some mopeds and drove through the rice paddies up toi the Cham Temples. Not quite as impressive as Angkor Wat but the ride through the villages was worth it! That night the rest of the gang had caught us up from Nha Trang and we all went out for street food along the river with an array of dishes.

The next sleeper train was 18 hours to Hanoi so we made sure we got the soft sleeper! It was so much better with just the 3 of us playing cards and music and watching as we hugged the coastline and plodded through tunnels.

Hanoi is quite different to Saigon and has an old quarter where everyone eats on the street and drinks beer for 13p! This of course led to a night out until midnight when a curfew causes the police to clear the bars out. However someone clearly new where to go as a sea of people headed for a bar near the river that clearly brided the police, so the night continued. There isn't alot to do in Hanoi so Me, Remy, Flic and a girl we met Rachael walked in the heat to Ho Chi Minh Masueleum to find it was closed so we slashed out on the most expensive coffee in town (3 dollars).

The next day I had originally planned to go on an expensive cruise around Halong Bay, but I had developed a bit of a bad stomach so decided against it. Turned out to be one of the best things that had happended the whole trip. I asked around and had a google and found a bu,s a ferry and then another bus that got me and Carl to Cat Ba island for 10 dollars. We met a different Jess and Elisa on the bus and went out for dinner that evening. Food wasn't great but a few games of very competitive table football made up for it. The next day we hired two bikes and the 4 of us explored through the limestone pillars on the most spectacular, traffic free, new mountain roads I have ever seen! Every now and then we stopped at the side of the road and explored some of the caves, including a cave that was converted into a hospital in the war. We all got rather peckish and decided to stop at alittle shack by the raod to find two vietnamese war veterens that could not understand how we were travelling together but not married. So even though they spoke no english, the next minute I was arm wrestling with him and the winner 'won' Jess, we think. Luckily even though he was stronger than me, my arm was twice the size so it ended in a draw.

Lisa an Irish girl I met in Hoi An then joined us a day later as she had been bitten by a dog so had to have rabies jabs. We all went to the beach and jumped in the waves with the locals as they screamed as alot of the Vietnamese couldn't swim very well.

Then today it was back to Hanoi to catch my flight. Me and Carl however managed to get a boat through Halong Bay on the way back. We paid in total 12 dolars for the bus tour and the bus, where everyone else on the boat cruise they had booked through a tour agent had paid 200 dollars so a bargain.

Well Vietnam has been incredible! I would come back in a flash and have made some friends for life. Also nearly been convinced to move out to Oz for a year so maybe the travels aren't over just yet.

Bring on the diving twice a day and the beach!

Tom x

(I can't upload any pictures so the picture is from Da Lat)