It feels like a while since I wrote on my blog... We have been in Vietnam now for about 5 days and it has been non stop! I thought there were some crazy places in the world but I had not been to Hanoi!

We arrived on the Laos airlines, which according to Marc a guy from the Netherlands is the only thing their foreign office warn against flying with in Laos, but we arrived in one piece and met some lovely Aussies Sarah and Toby and got oursleves into a cab to the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. This is a super fun place, lots of people, free internet, tours and a good breakfast.

As we have limited time, we all booked ourselves onto the Halong Bay tour for the following day. All very excited we get up at the daunting time of 7am. We got on the bus ready for the trip and half way to the bay the bus stops as there is apparently a tornado heading our way! Well I am sure as they don't want to refund us, we continued into the storm... whcih did eventually go away.

We got to the bay and got onto this lovely boat, where we had lunch and made ourway to some caves. Seen one cave seen them all! There were also about 500 other boats around whcih was not great. The best part of the day was when we went to a lobely spot and got to jump off the boat and swim in the sea... it was beautiful! We then headed to the spot for the night, where the drinking games started and some of us though swimming in our clothes would be a great idea, the water was beautiful but the people on the boat were not so impressed and we got in trouble for swimming after dark... Oops!

The next day the group split and our half went rock climbing and kayaking in the bays. The Kayaking was hard work after the previous night, but the climbing was fantastic. The views were great and the climbs were really challenging. I loved it. That night we saw the floating villages, which have shops, bars and even a school, and stayed in a hotel on an island. Lots more to drink and eat that night, all drinks made by a complete tool called Tim, also an instructor, who got people in the group to take photos of him kayaking and rock climbing and flexing his pecks!

On the third day we headed back to Hanoi, the journey back a fine example of the driving, 2 car crashes and an overturned lorry, our driver managed to avoid, but not before he beeped his way around the mess. We will be in Hanoi until Sunday, celebrating Al's brithday tomorrow with our firned Ollie and Anja, then heading to the south. Will update soon!