Now then everyone…….First things first - WE'RE ALIVE AND WELL, the typhoon didn't get us or anything!!! Didn't even realize it had happened, we just though Vietnam's countryside was always underwater!! Hehe!

It seems like an age since we were in Luang Prabang, but really was only 1 week last Monday we had a good journey overnight on the bus, arrived 10 hours later like they said, and we managed to get a proper good kip on the back seats! Arrived in Vientaine, the capital of Laos..........and it all went wrong from there:

number 1) Debs cut her big toe right open at 6am soon as we arrived

number 2) a preying mantis attacked Debs

number 3) we left for Vietnam the next night (Vientaine was a bit scruffy - especially compared to Luang Prabang) on THE WORST BUS TRIP EVER!!! Wait for it....was meant to be 16hours.....was 30!!! WHAT! We spent more time at pit stops than we did actually travelling. Was ridiculus - just stop, start, stop, start all night long!! At one point some local rebel threw a rock at the window and it smashed (was a really nice coach too) the drivers stopped and used sellotape to secure the window, and just left glass all over the floor (by this time we still had at least 20 hours to go). Then, we sat outside the Vietnam border for, get this, 4hours!! Don't know why they didn't set off at 10pm instead of 6pm. Debs resided to sleeping on the coach floor to pass time. THEN...spent 3hrs at passport control - don't worry, not us, some Nigerian fella - then we got chucked onto a PUBLIC BUS (shoulder to shoulder with vietnamese who looked at us like we were aliens) for a whole 9 HOURS instead of 2!!! they sooooo lie!! There is a high chance that we actually lost a small percentage of our sanity at this point! We hadn't prepared enough crisps or water so had to eat at the grottiest pit stops ever - flies everywhere!

number 4) Saw a rat in the restaurant when we had tea in Hue - Central Vietnam
number 5) Debs consequently spent Fri and Sat staying in room and visiting toilet!
Can u actually believe it! Least we've done the whole hog with every angle of travelling now. So to summarize we left Luang Probang to pit stop at Vientaine, the capital of Laos, to then travel to Hue (Central Vietnam) and then arrived at our current destination, the marvelous Nha Trang!!!

Pretty much as soon as we arrived in Hue (our first destination in Vietnam) Debs wasn't feeling too well so we bummed around for a few days until she felt better. Chris was really nice and looked after me though. The night i 'fell ill' we got a pizza and luckily we'd forked out for a room in Hue with a t.v the night we landed, so sat in and watched football. The next day i felt okay so we shifted to a cheaper hostel by chance with a t.v...but as soon as i tried to eat it all went wrong. So the weekend spent in Hue entailed of me watching films and Chris going to the pub around the corner on his bill!

Then on Sunday when Debs was feeling better we went out for a historical day to the tombs and such. We booked a trip on Saturday for full day tour, but when we awoke at 7am we couldn't get up (back to being lazy students) so we didn't go then, but luckily u only pay for transport and not for tourist admission tickets so only wasted a few quid. We managed to get the hostel manager to take us privatley to visit a place where the locals make incense sticks and the colonial Vietnamese hats, then to the old Vietnamese emperors tomb (Tu Duc), a 'Pagoda' - the home of the infamous monk who burnt himself alive on the street in protest, and finally the 'Citidal' a fort in the forbidden Purple City walls and moat. Was a great day - very factual, and we both felt quite responsible learning about the history of the place. Was great to get back onto the tourism trail after doing nothing but traveling on buses and sitting in recovering.

One day in the Why Not? bar having some lunch, we met a scouser called Derek who knew (and lived for a short time) in Barlick……..How weird!!! Lodged with a bloke called Alan Smallwood - ring any bells anyone?! Anyway he had just come from Nha Trang and told us to head there as it is a damn site nicer that Hue!!Hue isn't the nicest city in 'Nam' - dirty on the streets and kept seeing rats in the restaurants so once we were feeling up to another overnight bus journey we headed down to Nha Trang!! Note to Chris, once I was better we hit the town Sunday night and then decided to travel on an overnight busthe next day! Stayed up with a couple of locals til 5am drinking - until Chris was unable to carry on!!!

That journey actually did take 16 hours and we both slept for the majority of it - being hungover as well as getting a bit better at it - set off at 2pm and arrived at 6am, and straight away we knew we would like it. It's the first sea-side place we've been to so were gunna stay a while and lap up the sun and the beach!! The beach is really nice palm tree's lining a few km's of sandy beach, and the sea is really clear in the morning but seems to get a bit murkier as the day goes on - it's a bit weird!! Still, enjoying the place as it's really clean, the people so far seem nice (even if they do hassle you to death to buy things) and the food is good!! Not yet sampled the night life so hopefully doing that tonight!!!!

Sorry this blog is a bit 'here and there' but we have lost track of days and dates so it'll have to do.

Over and out.

Lots of love,

Chris & Debs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx