Ok Ok, so it's been a while since I last posted anything is this blog. In fact it's been 3 months, 6 countries, 7 flights and 4 overland border crossings since I last posted so I've got alot of catching up to do. And if after doing all this typing I find that nobody has read it, no matter how boring it is, I'll be more than slightly pissed off!!

After Kathmandu I had to get a flight down to Delhi for my flight to Hanoi in Vietnam. Must say I wasn't looking forward to getting back to hot, sweaty, dirty crowded India, especially after the coolness of Kathmandu. My fears were well justified when I got to the hostel in the heart of Delhi. The usual cockroachs, stained covered sheets that I was assured where actually clean and not to mention the usual hustle and bustle of a noisy, dusty India just outside to door. Thankfully I was only there for one night and I got the flight to Hanoi via Kuala Lumpur the next day.

Keeping my fingers crossed that Vietnam wouldn't be as in yer' face as India we got into Hanoi early in the morning. And thankfully the crossed fingers had done the trick. Hanoi, although it's in a communist country, is as westernised as most other countries I've been to and completely different than anything I experienced in India. The roads and streets are the same as england, good shops, food stalls, anything you would want can be baught in Hanoi. Although the odd statue of a working class couple holding up a hammer and sickle or hats with an embossed red star in the middle can be seen dotted around the city, communism has definitely taken a back seat and capitalism and materialism is very much in the driving seat....they even have a three floor KFC restaurant here!!

I booked into Hanoi backpackers, a great place with lots of people there including a bunch of Welsh blokes with two lads from Leeds. These guys were in my room so I thought it only polite to join them for a few drinks at the bar down stairs. Only problem is that these guys don't do things by halves. With drinking games being played like theres no tomorrow I was wondering what I had let myself in for. Thankfully just as I was about to lose another game and down my fifth pint in 20 minutes, AJ walked through the door. She'd been on another Intrepid trip in Vietnam and was stopping in Hanoi for a few days. We went out for a quick bite to eat and she introduces me to a couple of guys she knows from her Africa trip. Nick and Rich had known each other for a while, both working in London. They were due to go on the Ha Long Bay trip the day after and I had booked the trip the day after that but only the 2 day version.

The Ha Long Bay trip was great. The bus picked us up at 9am and the welsh guys were on the same trip, hhhmmmm, this could go very bad or very good, but either way it would be fun. Most of the hostel or at least people in our dorm had already experienced the wrath of the drunken welsh the night before. All bursting into the room naked and absolutely pissed out there heads at 4 in the morning. Jumping on one of the sleeping guys from Leeds, they seemed to be re-enacting a scene from a comical version of Brokeback Mountain.

One of the guys from Leeds I get on ok with, he doesn't seem as crazy as the other blokes, keep forgetting his name and he forgets mine. We decide to just call each other Leeds and Preston. Don't ask my why we manage to remember where were from and not the names, but, there we go.

After the exciting bus trip we got to the boat. A big wooden 3 floor boat that was more like a hotel than a boat. Once getting out between the huge rock columns of Ha Long Bay we were initiated by jumping from the top deck of the boat, which looks alot higher when your up there. We canoed through caves and into some of the lagoons before heading back to the boat for some food. The rest of the night was spent drinking alot and watching the welsh getting naked and invading some of the other boats moored up close by in the bay. Jumping over the boat and swimming to which ever boat took there fancy. Alan, the craziest of the group, scared the s*** out of an old woman coming out of here room. Opening her door, expecting to see the sunset over the rock of Ha Long Bay only to be greeted by the sight of a naked welshman running around your boat would scare the crap out of any oap.

The next day I caught the boat back to the main land on the same boat as Nick and Rich. While on the way back to Hanoi we played some drinking games. Rich had to be helped back to the hostel after getting off the coach as he'd lost most of the rounds of the games.

The next few days were spent site seeing, including the infamous 'Water Puppet Show', must admit I was a bit disappointed. it was all in Vietnamese......what's all that about! The next day Myself, Rich and Nick got a cheap flight down to Hoi An with a couple of girls that we went to the crappy puppet theatre with. I'd heard that Hoi An is the place to go if your looking for a quality but dirt cheap taylor-made suit. Thought I'd treat myself when I get there.