Vietnam

We arrived in Hanoi at night, looking out of the airoplane window we could see a mass of lights and sky rise buildings...a big change from the tiny little 'cities' of Laos, I use the term city very lightly! We negociated a fair and had a rather smart sporty car take us into the main city to meet Dan (our mutual friend from uni) who is living in Hanoi at the moment. He took us to his house which is typical Vietnamese, long thin and many stories high.

We rested at Dans for a few days as I was recovering from food poisning, I won't go into too much detail but I got ill the night before we were due to fly out and then the next day it took all the energy and will power I had left to get on the flight! (which got delayed 5 hours!) Luckily I had Poonam and our friends Gemma and Max to help me carry my bag and keep us company while we waited (they were getting the same flight).

So anyway we didnt do much for a couple of days except sleep and venture out to order food but not actually eat it! (Poonam wasn't feeling too well either) but worry not we are well now and back on the greedy sized portions! We have visited the Ethnology museum here and done some shopping and been to a few bars.

We also took a trip with Dan up to Ha Long Bay which is very beautiful. It was a two day boat trip and we saw the caves there which were pretty impressive but complete with steps carved into the rocks for us and STOP signs! We also tried out kayaking, me and Poonam were awesome, first time ever and we went all over the bay...okay we nearly got run over by a boat but apart from that we were wikid! Although Poonam doen't understand which way to paddle to go back or forward so there was a bit of shouting from me!




Dan tried diving off the boat but failed epically, he belly flopped in the water and we got a hilarious picture of him, he was red all over his face and body! We also shared a room with Dan because it was cheaper, he really tried to make up for being just one guy, boys from uni you would be proud!

The boat was luxary and didn't even break our budget, the views from the boat of the islands were pretty spectacular, it was very peaceful and the lights from the other boats threw reflections over the water, we sat on the top deck watching the sun set.

In the evening there was karaoke...Dan the dark horse is a really good singer! Well good at Oasis anyway :P While me and Poonam were shocking, I mean shocking! We couldnt even sing together because when one sung the other one peed there pants laughing! It was really fun though.

There were loads of people on the trip with us, we made friends with a couple from Sheffield, a couple from France, an American girl and a women from France who was great fun and she went in Dans kyak.

We are back in Hanoi now and have booked plane tickets to Cambodia, we have not warmed to the Vietamese people very much, or the place, so we decided to go straight to Cambodia and then try and spend a bit more time in Thailand if we can as we really loved it there.

Peace out Saskia and Poonam xx