Sooo the bloomin sleeping pills were a hazzard on this trip, oh boy where do we begin. So we left Vientiane at about 8pm headed for Luang Prabang - only 463km away but as per Asian times it would take 12 hours to get there. We got into our seats and everyone was settled seats all full and then another 20 people climbed aboard and they pulled out plastic stools and placed them in the isle. On top of the roof of the bus we had everything from double beds to toilet ...

So on the sleeper a 10pm stop for food (if you can all it that we were just glad that it didn't mess with our bowels) a dodgy fried rice and some average looking noodles, purchased some sweet bread rolls to eat later with cheese and climbed back onto the bus and sunk some valium sleeping pills, these helped us see our way through in pretty good sleeping form until the Vietnam/Laos borders. Shuttled off the bus with little direction in a mist of fog we were bare...

So our bus finally arrived at 9am and we climbed on the typically arrangedvietnam bus - overloaded and bags for africa as the boots are so small, squished in like Sardines we began our 3 hour bus ride with a quick 20minute stop on the way. Again in usual annoying Vietnamese style we waited without an idea for what were waiting for at the dock in Halong to board our boat for 2hours. This was our most annoying wait by far (it meant that we arrived in Cat Ba island ...

After a few sleeping pills later but still not a great sleep we arrived in HAnoi. This place is massive, with tiny streets, way too many mototbikes and over keen puchy sales ladies!!! Free taxi ride to a hotel, $4 a night each and an actual shower cubicle for the first time since melobourne - we took it! We havent read up on too much to do here so we wondered the streets to find some breakfast and then headed to the markets (not that our bags can fit much more i...

Short bus trip today - thank god! we werent feeling a 100%. Found a hotel to stay in that has our own computer with internet in our room, along with a tv and 3 single beds...we made very good use of these all afternoon, only venturing out for lunch and dinner and a meander round town at night time. We found a KFC once a gain, and dabbled in a potato and gravy and fries for dessert...still no sightings of a mcdonalds yet! Booked to go on a tour of Hue for our onl...