My first impressions of the first vietnamese people we met were..... they shoud have been shot in the war! Now i know you'll probably be thinking, Alex how on earth can you say that but let me tell ya why.....

After arriving at the bus station at 7pm to get on the crappy old bus that was going to take us over to Vietnam we were greeted by the most vile, horrible, dirty, smelly, rude Vietnamese men you will ever meet in your life (if you ever meet any that is!) Me, rach n carlie found some seats then straight away they came up to us, shouting in our faces to move because they wanted our seats. I moved twice then when another came up shouting i stood my ground and told him to sod off n find another seat. The smelly git sat behind me, then when i put my seat back, he kept poking me in my back telling me in his language to put it forward. I was so wound up at this point i told him where to go then switched my ipod on full blast so i couldnt hear them all. I just couldnt believe how rude they all were and how discusting. They just kept spitting on the floor of the bus n fartin all the time! Honestly i felt sick n would have rather have been on a bus full of pigs, i really would!

Luckily an ozzie guy came n sat next to me n he gave us some valuim so i managed to get abit of kip during the night. We arrived at the Vietnam border at about 5am but the gates didnt open till 8am so had 2 hrs just sat there waiting but once we got over it all went down hill from there!!

Our bus was over taking another car n it clipped the side of it, causing the car to bang into the barrier on the road but our bus driver thought he could get away with it n just kept driving! After about 10 mins the police caught us up n were trying to get him to pull over. He wouldnt though n just kept on going then when he eventually did pull over, he said something to the police then set off again! This happened about 4 times, n each time the police car kept driving infront of us n slowing down trying to make us stop n driving in the middle of the road to slow us down! Eventually they b*****ed off n we though thank god for that, but then the bus driver must have come to his sense's n drove to the police staion!! We all got out n the cops took about 2 n half hrs to check the bus over, i actually got me head down on police staion floor (the valium wa good!!) We eventually set off again n after about 10 mins drove passed an awful smash, (didnt see anyone dead or owt but the moped wa pretty smashed up) Well we all looked at each other n thought what the hell next!

27 hrs later we arrived at the bus station where a local guy said he's take us to a nice hotel with 3 beds, (a few people were going so we wasnt on our own) but when we got to the hotel n after carting that dead body of a bag up all the stairs there were no rooms with 3 beds n it turned out to be alot more expensive than the guy had origionally said. Well Rach was fuming! She got into a row with the owner n we all stormed out n went to the hotel next door which luckily had 3 beds!!! by this time it was 11pm, n after the shocking journey it didnt take long before we wa all fast on!

The following day, after a nice lie in we explored abit of Hanoi. I was half expecting it to be like vientienne so it was a nice surpise to find proper shops n resturants! We were all in our element to find a real shopping centre! (i know that sounds sad but after a month of no shops you'd have been the same!)

We've now moved to a nicer hotel abit more in the centre and love it here cos we even have a TV n a bath!!! Not had a bath since ive been away so its such a nice treat! (i do have showers by the way! im not that much of a scruffy traveller yet!) last night with it being Sat, we thought we'd go out for a couple, theres an irish pub near by so just went there. Well 3 bottles of wine later we were fairly drunk! No dancing on bars n showing ourselves this time though, we just sat n talked s***e which was nice! Feeling a little worse for wear today so just had a lazy day in the hotel, watching TV n ordering food to the room!

In a few days heading to Halong Bay where theres little islands there (like the phi phi islands in thailand) so looking forward to some beaches again. My tan has almost gone so cant wait to get it topped up again! So ill be in touch soon n let you know how it is there!

lots of love al

ps, Most of the vietnamese are nice, just those ones on te bus that should have been shot!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx