Next we took a night sleeper bus from Nha Trang arriving in Hoi An early the next morning! Much prefered that mode of travel from the wonderful crammed buses we were getting so use to now! Although I don't think Ben has the same opinion as I don't think he slept a wink! :o)

Hoi An is a great little town which is renowed for its cheap tailor made clothes... if its in a catalog anywhere in the world and you have a picture of it. Then it can be custom made for you within days... at a fraction of the cost! The biggest problem we had was choosing one of the shops, as theres bloody loads of them all trying to flog you a suit!!

Opted for a place called Kimmy's who seemed spot on, so we went in got measured up, chose the fabric, and style and off we went for a beer or 2. Next day went back and there sat 3 brand new suits for our first fitting! Some minor adjustments had to done, so popped back later for the final fitting... and that was that we all had brand new talior made cashmere suits, and some shirts. Got them shipped to Stevo's in Oz so I could wear my new threads for Dans wedding in Sydney! AEWSOME!

Ended up staying in Hoi An for 4 days in total, beautiful little town really. Was so hot when we arrived there, but when it rained you knew about it! One night we got caugh short on the way back from the beach club, never seen a down pour like it! Got absolutely soaked!

Had some qualty nights out here as well, basically started in Why Not bar! Then head to the beach club, Where I ended up DJing most nights as the guy who ran the place asked for some assistance as he was playing crap tunes and no one was dancing! Up steps Ravey and gets the place rocking! RESULT! :o)

One day we hired some scooters and headed out to the coast and 10km away! Such fun! Weather was crap that day, but we stopped at a little place on the beach for some food, turned out to be a quality little find, sold the BEST, BIGGEST, FRESHEST prawns I've ever had! Ended up driving back through towns packed market... SUCH good fun!

So after a pretty sucessful time in Hoi An, it was back on the bus heading north, just a short journey to Hue this time.

Hue is the capital from way back when! And its built around a big Citidel which was very impressive. The only problem was that from the moment we arrived till the moment we left it didn't stop raining! Propper rain as well... didn't matter about the water proofs! The persistent rain made our mind up for us, we saw the citidel took some photos, and booked the next mornings 14 hour train journey north to Hanoi.

The train journey was the famous Reunerfication express which runs the length of Vietnam from Hanoi to HCMC, could have got a night sleeper train, but the train goes through some breath taking scenary which we didn't want to miss, so the Ben's, Lara and I decided on the early morning train. Soooo glad we did as the scenary was fantastic. Even made our selves a picnic for the journey!

We arrived in to Hanoi that evening a little tired after the journey but all good, checked into our hostel after getting the run around from the local taxi drivers trying to rip you off at any given opportunity!

We met up with some friends we'd met earlier on the trip, and Lara's brother who lives and works in Hanoi teaching English. He showed us the sites and sounds of Hanoi, and most importantly the cheap local places to go for a beer. so instead of paying the slightly inflated travelers prices, we were drinking with the locals in the street for 12p a pint!! Now your talking!

Hanoi was a really pretty city, you could easily see the french influence here. Big tree lined boulavards were very impressive, a massive lake which is just as just as impressive. Walked around Hanio getting a really good feel of the place. Traffic was as crazy as HCMC, crossing the road was always entertaining!

I'd read about the remains of an old American B52 Bomber that was shot down one Christmas Eve during the Vietnam war, which I wanted to see. It's a memorial now that half sticks out of the lake. So off Lara and I head in search of this... we hunted high and low for this B52, walking around propper Hanoi. Guide book was useless... and ended up asking direction about 1000 times, even the locals didn't seem to have any idea what I was talking about! It was getting late and we were about to lose the sun light, I was pretty much about to give up, when finally we found the bloody thing! Turned out to be in a little neigbourhood near the big lake which has little off shoot waterways! No where near where the guide book said it was! Saw the real Hanoi in the hunt so can't complain!

After a few days in Hanoi we left for a 3 day trip to Ha Long Bay, which is a few hours north east of Hanoi.
Had an absolutely amzing trip to Ha Long bay. Its without doubt one of the highlights of the trip so far. 1 day and night aboard a gallion in the middle of the bay surrounded by lime stone cliffs... canoewing, swimming, jumping off the boat. Massive party on the boat that night. Such a good night.

The folowing morning we are picked up by a shuttle boat to whisk some of us off to our very own cast away island to spend day relaxing in the sun. Play beach volley ball, table tennis, tubing off the back of a speed boat in some of the best most beautiful surroundings. And of course you guessed it have a few beers!Spent the night in huts on the beach, and the next morning we were picked up b the shuttle boat again and taken back to the gallion, and back to the main land nursing some hangovers, and shuttled back to the hostel in Hanoi, where we had a very quiet night to recover.

Absolutely AMAZING TRIP! The group we had both on the boat and on the castaway island were fantastic... which made the trip all the more better. I want to go back NOW! :o) I could waffle about that trip for days but will save it - check the photo's and go there seriously!!

Next day was our last in Vietnam, so I got up early to finish last bits off sightseeing, hired a moto driver for the morning and got whisked around Hanoi stopping at the war musems and monuments that are scattered around Hanio. Really nice city and would love to go back - suppose that would mean I'd have to go back to Ha Long bay then wouldn't I??? Ahhh shame that. :o)

Next up flight from Hanoi to Vientienne in Laos on the infamous Laos Airways!
Where I'll leave entry for now!

More to follow very soon as we need to get this updated asap! I'm writing this from OZ!!! :o) Useless ya say!

Much love
Ravey
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