Hi all We are back in Hanoi amongst the hustle and bustle of this crazy city. The train home was somewhat eventful. We hooked up with Annie and Brian again for the trip home but we were in different carriages so we had this grand plan about trying to swap with whoever was in our carriage, so annie and brian could join us. Sounds simple? Factor in english as a second language/ no Vietnamese, a very long train with carriages that were at opposite ends and a t...

HI All We are now in Sapa which is near the boarder of Laos and China. We took the night train - which sounded good on paper but ended up being a sleepless night for me and a somewhat sleepless night for Amanda. That made two nights in a row that we had not slept. Recipe for two cranky Amandas. The train arrives about 2km from the Chinese boarder and we then had to take a minibus to Sapa along with the twoAussies who we shared the train compartment with - Ann...

Hi everyone its amanda here, so, Vietnam so far has been a blast, we are having a great time!! ha long bay was just awesome, it was so magical, swimming in the middle of these massive rock formations was just mind blowing, it was so sureal. was truly paradise. we did lots of swimming and kyaking and exploring of caves. as usual I have taken 400 photos in 6 days (literally) so lots of photos to see when we get back (slide night woo hoo!!) the internet is reall...

Hi all This is Mandy. After the third attempt we have given up on loading photos, so sorry, but you will have to wait until we get home. The internet here is just too slow - well at least the ones in the internet cafes. Now, onto other stuff. We just got back to Hanoi from Halong Bay. As some of you know from the text messages, Amanda asked me to marry her and I said yes. I will let her do her own blog also, but it made a very special trip even more wonder...

Hi All We found a slightly better internet place so will try to catch you up on what's been happening. Hanoi is a total culture shock. We spent the first couple of days havingto work ourselves up to going outside of the hotel. Even crossing the road to buya bottle of water took much consideration. That said we are now in the swing of things. We mastered crossing the road (which requires suspending all your previous views on road safety), we got some cultur...