Welcome to Vietnam, country number 4, unfortunatly this one didnt start off so exciting.

So we arrived in the airport and as the emailed had stated there would be someone in the airport waiting for us with a board with our names on. We arrived 30 minutes early so we both just follwed everyone else to the visa application window, no problems at all so we instantly knew we had been conned. As we went to the opposite window which is where you collect your passport when it has your visa, a guy came running round the corner with our names on a board. He came straight up to us asking for our passports and to sit down, I laughed as I told him our visa was sorted and his face droppped. Basically all he was going to do was make out that he had to take our passport and do exactly as we had done and then we would have paid himethe $188. He was getting very anxious as he knew we had on eover on him and the there was nothing he could do as we already had our visa... HAHAHA. Me being as blunt as I am told him that it was all a con and that not a chance in hell would he get any money our ot us. He looked worried and as we walked off to go through passport control he was frantcally dialing numbers in his phone to what we guess was the 'office'. Just as we reached the front of the que a guard came over and pulled us out of and took us back up to the visa place. I was a bit worried we have both heard stories of what they can be like but of course I stood my ground. We soon realised that the guard had cottend on to what this guy was doing especially as we had the visa and the confirmation to prove we had paid. The guard sent is off on our way but the guy was still following us (this whole process took about an hour) We thought we would have all his vietnames brother outside waiting to chase after us but he has dissapeard so all was good.

We got a mini bus with the boys and another couple we met in the airport to Hanoi Backpackers. Everyone you meet that has been or is going will be at Hanoi Backpackers.

It is the best hostel I have ever stayed in. It is all brand new and has only been open 2 years so uptodate and really modern. They have free internet and a bar downstairs which gets wild on an evening. The rooms are realll clean, the beds are comfy and the showers are spotless. On the 5th floor is more computers a pool table, BBQ on the balcony with sunloungers and best of all, a huge plasma screen tv and loads of crner sofas and bean bags.

That night we headed straight down to the bar with everyone for drinks and went on the bar crawl with the hostel.

The next morning we got up for breakfast and went to Hoa Lo prison, also known as Hni Hilton. The prison was used by French Colonists in Vietnam for political prisoners. It was quite interesting but was mostly picutres on the wall rather then the remains of the prison as other sections of the prison were knocked down years ago. From there we walked to Hoan Kiem Lake According to the legend, emperor Le Loi handed a magic sword called Heaven's Will which brought him victory in his revolt against the Chinese ,ing Dynasty back to the Golden Turtle God Kim Qui in the lake and hence gave it its present name. We walked around the Lake and then took a Cyclo (a bike with a sort of cart at the front that you sit in, riden by a local) and had a 30 minute tour around he city. It was funny the guy was so small so was struggeling to peddle wth both of us in it so ended up pushing us half of the way round. We stopped at some shops on way back and then headed back to the hostel for a rest.

We went up to floor 5 and headed straight for the comfy corner sofas and didnt move untill 10pm after watching hours of films, we even had our tea delivered up there it was so relaxing to just chill out watching tv.

Day 2 in Hanoi we were up in time for the free breakfast which is always a bonus. We had huge baguettes with all sorts of jam, fresh fruit and coffee a million times better than other places. We got a taxi over to te Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum however we were too late to go see his body as it closed at 10.30 so we headedover to the presidential palace, one pillar pagoda and the museum. It wasn't till we arived and saw the millions of asian tourist that we realised we had absolutely no idea of what Ho Chi Minh was, let alone that it was infact a person. We just walked around and made up our own stories of everything we saw which was funny. We now know however that Ho Chi Minh served as both the prime minister and president of the Demoractic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). Leader of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh City is named in his honor.

From there we decided to head to the water park which firstly turned into disater number 2. We flagged down a taxi but the first one gave us a ridiculous price so we walked away, another taxi pulled up alongside and offered us 100,000 dong which was what the hostel sad it should be. We told him to take us to the watrpark and after tryng to demontrate swimming and slides we were off. Nex thing he very slightly ran into the back of an old woman on a scoote, next thing we knew she was screaming at the driver, opened the door and was sittin on his knee grabbing his arm trying to pullthe keys out of the engine, it was hilarious as they both screamd at each othe. An onlooker saw the comotion and came to pull the woman out of the car and direct the taxi driver to pull over, the taxi driver was havng non of it so the guy jumped on the bonet of the car so he had to pull over, the taxi driver drove upo th spot he has been told to comer over, the guy got off the bonet but the taxi driver sped off even though the polic were at the side of us. Great we were in a get away car. It does sund worse that i actually was we were in histerics as we drove off through the streets and the taxi driverjust laughed.

We hoever were soon not laughing as he pulled up to some random hotel and told us that was the water park, luckily the woman inside was very nice and spoke good english and told us it was a communication error and that he had not understood when we obviously knew he had. Unfortunly we had to pay him but we got into another taxi to take us to the water park.

We didnt expect much from the water park but infact we had such a fun afternoon, the slides were really good and there were zip lines and monkey bars over the pools so spent the afternoon acting like ten year olds. The park was mainly full of locals so had fun on the lazy river with the local kids. While I was in the wave pool a young vietnamese girl with down syndrome was staring at me so I smiled and waved. She instantly came over and clung onto my ring laughing and smiling, it was so cute, she stayed with me for a good 15 minutes and kept saying hello and thank you in English, she was so sweet I gave her my ring and she was so happy splashing about with me, it was really nice.

At about 4 the sky went black so we came back to the hostel. We had booked a trip for the following day to Halong Bay, Basically a booze cruise followed by 2 nights on Cast Away Island. For the whole time we had been there trips had been cancelled or brought back early due to Typhoonm vincent so we were not expecting our trip to be on and no one could give us an answer either. That night because of the annoyance of groups that had been cancelled ect they held a Typhoon party with drinks offers and free shots most of the night. Because we didnt think our trip would run everyne was out all night. Even the following moning we didnt get confirmation till half an hour before we had to leave so everyone was angry and annoyed and not really in the mood for the trip. That soon changed though!!