Hello anyone who's still reading the blog! (probably just me in years to come hehe)

So.... A LOT has happened in the last week, cant remember when I last blogged but think it was in Cambodia in Sihanoukville. Which by the way was a bit of a skank pit, really manky beach although we had a cool beach bungalow bare place to stay and had an amusing drunken night with the Australian navy and copious amounts of Bundaberg haha. Got back to Phnom Penh and left the next day for a very enjoyable bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. Very relieved to have left Cambodia as we both werrnt too keen on the place, so it was a relief to be going somewhere with a better economy and exciting sights to see. As we drove in the the city we could already see the difference to Cambodia and I was keen to start exploring.

Used my trusty guidbook to find us some cheap accoodation about 10 mins walk away from the main tourist streets and got a nice little family run guest house for $9 a night for a fan room with a double bed. Pretty good considering most are about $15 a night. So for the next couple of days we enjoyed exploring, found a mahoosive market with sooo much stuff in (might have bought a few little pressies and im oh so tempted to buy myself a Vietnamese teapot and send it home). The city is fairly small and easy to walk around except for the insane amount of mopeds which have no rules of the road. Although there are pedestrian corssings they dont seem to mean much here so you literally start walking and pray that the traffic goes round you. It takes courage but it seems to work! Mum - you would HATE it! We also took a trip to the Botanical Gardens which turned out to also be a zoo - how random! Even more crazy was the entry price - about 30p! It was pretty damn good considering - my guide book calls it batanical gardens with a few animals thrown in but we were pretty impressed - saw lots of animals and it was really quiet so we got to get really close to some of them without loads of sceaming kids ala Chester Zoo at home!

Saying that though some enclosures were much to small for the poor animals, especially the tigers and they had signs of distress which was upsetting. most looked good though and we had a good if not a bit rainy day (i did buy a very attractive whole body mac - pictures to follow!) Theres a couple of main tourist streets with loads of cafes, restaurants, internet cafes, travl agents on so we sampled some tasty grub and local Saigon beer. They have 2 types here and the fist night we asked for Siagon Red - the waiter was like, 'really? Saigon Red? Its very strong' - thought we obv couldnt handle our drink! haha, so we went for the girly option of Saigon Green which is very tastuy indeed and still pretty potent.

Anywhoo, as i said after a couple of days sighseeing Alex decided to fly home as a job had come up she wanted to interview for so she left on Saturday (we had arrived Thursday). So I was left in Ho Chi Minh wondering what the heck to dso with myself and whether I could really be a loe traveller as I hadnt planned to travel alone. I really wanted to see Vietnam though as it was the place I was most looking forward to so decided to hang round Ho Chi minh for a few days and think it over.

So ive been here just over a week now and am VERY ready to leave! I decided to wait around until my friend Laura and her blokey Sam got here (they were in China and flying in on the Friday), it meant I had to amuse myself for a week but I figured I needed to see a friendly face and get some sensible advice which is Lauras speciality. So...its been pretty boring all in all but Ive been ok, had a couple of really down days and it has been lonely as its hard to meet people in a city. But ive enjoyed chilling out and spending my time in cafes, reading my book, internetting, making lots of lovely lists and eating tasty tasty food. Got a bit of routine to my days by going to a lovely bakery in the morning where I could eat shed loads of bread products (yes James, BREAD mwahhahha) and get a giant cup of English Breakfast tea (of the joys), doing some exploring, using internet, getting dinner and couple of beers then home for a movie. Not very rock and roll but I didnt think it wise to be out late as a lone female traveller.

Laura and Sam arrived Friday night thank god as I literally was going slightly insanw with the lack of human contact, theyre staying in the same guest house. We did some sightseeing yesterday, went to the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants museum which was extremely depressing as it had loads of photographs from the war. I know nothing about the Vietnam war so it was pretty harrowing and there was lots of info and pictures of victims of Agent Orange and the effects its still having on babies born today. Worth seeing though. Last night Laura happened to ask me how long my visa was and i suddenly realised that it was only a month long visa and Ive been here a week so oly got 3 weeks left to see the rest of the country! whoops! This is why I need Laura around, I just dont think of these things! So im having to get a wriggle on and moving on tommorrow up the coast. Laura and Sam are going to stay for a couple of days maybe and go south to the Mekong Delta before going north like me so hopefully maight meet up with them again at some point buy maybe not as they have longer than me to explore.

So right now Im picking which open bus tour to take up the coast - theres a well trodden tourist route of main destinations to stop at, with loads of companies offering open tour buses between them, half seating half sleeping for the longer journeys. Found one for $41 which is 25 pounds which is good. Its basically valid for 3 months with buses going throuigh every day - you just phone up the night before to book yourself on the bus you want so means you can stay in a place as long as you want. Im hoping to meet some other travellers during the rest of my trip so going to put my best smiley Rachael face on and do my best. Setting off tommorrow morning to Mui Ne which is a beach area with some nearby Sand dunes which look good. then on to Da Lat which is a hillside waterfall type place, then Nha Trang - the biggest beach place in Vietnam which has natural mudbaths, then onto Hoi An, Hue and Hanoi. From Hanoi I want to then take a 3 day boat tour of Halong Aby which is supposed to be stunning so looking forward to that. Keeping an eye on the weather though as there hasbeen a lot of flooding in Hoi An particularly so will just have to see if the routes are affected.

Anywhoo, thats enough for now, sorry for extremely long blogging. Taking Laura to the market this afternoon for a bit of teapot buying then think were getting the drinks in later! Will addd some more photos soon I promise! And if anyone hears news of impending floods, typhoons etc please let me know as I dont have newspapers here so dont hear about stuff! I must check BBC website more often. Love to evreyone back home, miss you !!! x x x