Hey again!

I have a LOT to tell you since I last wrote...

I left Bali about a week ago, was very sad to see Menna go :( but here's to the next year of travelling with a new buddy! Then I had a night in Malaysia with Rach's uncle and aunt. They put me up in a lovely hotel (hot shower and everything!) in Kuala Lumpur and I had an awesome dinner with them. Then I flew to Vietnam and met Rachael at the airport...

We've been staying in a backpackers hostel in Hanoi where we have met loads of other travellers. They have a rooftop bar where we have spent many a night partying :) One night we ended up in a club on a boat in the middle of a dirty river- which looked very much like a swimming pool in our drunken minds, so we went swimming in it! Regretted that the next day.

The traffic here in Hanoi is crazy! There appear to be absolutely no road rules whatsoever and the locals zoom around on their scooters with their entire family propped on the back somehow. We were told that it would probably be best to close our eyes whilst crossing the road and hope for the best.

After our first couple of days here we signed up for a few nights on a big junk boat in Halong Bay. We spent the days kayaking around the 1000 limestone islands, visiting hidden lagoons and beaches and sunbathing on the deck of our boat with the 15 other travellers- bliss. Definitely recommend that trip to anyone coming to Vietnam. The nights were spent drinking onboard our boat and swimming in the sea- we clearly have a thing for drunken night swimming!

We've booked a flight to Laos at great expense, but the bus trip takes 30hours and is ranked in the top three worst trips in the world. Anyway we are both leaving thisevening and plan to spend a few days checking out northern Laos before heading down to south Vietnam and then onto Cambodia.

To my parents- where are you? Email me!

We'll put some photos on here asap, the Bali ones are on Facebook already. From here on out rach and I will be alternating who writes the blog, a bit of variation for you for the next year and a rest for us!

Love bex and rach xx