Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I'm writing this from a little village about 30minutes outside of Hanoi in Vietnam. I have been staying at my auntie's house for just over a week now. I feel a bit like a school child on a foreign exchange trip! Living in a house with a Vietnamese family and in a village that no other travellers visit! Needless to say I am getting stared at lots! I am definitely having an experience that no other travellers will have! There are no shops here, just stalls selling food and lots of clothes stalls - Chi said in her village they sells clothes wholesale to shops in Hanoi so it is a very important village. Chi's mum has a wholesale fabric shop and her sister has a clothes shop. Her 14 year old niece goes to China once a week to buy clothes for her mum's shop! How brave! The streets are very tiny, it's like a maze! You have to poke your head round every corner to watch out for scooters and motorbikes!
There are lots of people living in my auntie's house. Her mum, dad, brother, his 2 boys (one 5 and one 15 I think!) and their helper and now me, my auntie Chi, my 2 baby cousins and their helper Anita. So a very full house! Lots of visitors keep popping in too, Chi's sister and her 2 children and various cousins and aunties and uncles! Never a dull moment! The days are mostly filled with singing nursery rhymes and feeding time for the babies and nap time and playing, and washing! We've been in to Hanoi a few times and we've had a busy few days because we had to take Sara to hospital on Sunday as they thought she had 'hand and foot' (a virus) but it turned out that she had a lung infection and might have 'hand and foot'. She had a blood test and X-ray and has been given antibiotics and various other medicines. We went to the hospital again on Tuesday and Sara is doing much better. Poor little thing.

We've also been out in to the countryside to visit another of Chi's aunties, about a 2 hour drive from Hanoi. The 2 children at Chi's aunties house found it hilarious that I couldn't understand what they were saying! I ended up chasing them around which they found very funny! I just found it very hot and tiring! Ha!

We have also visited a crocodile farm/restaurant! Chi said people go there for special occasions to eat crocodile. There were lots of them in a big pond and we got there just in time to see them being fed! There were also cages with big white rabbits in and a huge rat and chickens and what looked like baby pigeons. Chi informed me that people buy them to eat. Chi offered to buy us some crocodile for dinner but I didn't really fancy it!
Next to the crocodile farm was a place selling bonsai trees! They were amazing. I took lots of photos for my boyfriend as he is trying to bonsai a tree at the moment!

Yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon we went to visit Chi's auntie, uncle and cousins who she hadn't seen for 13 years. We were only planning to stay for 1/2 hour but we ended up staying for 6 hours! They insisted on cooking us dinner! They bought me and Anita spaghetti bolognaise from a cafe and gave me chop sticks to eat it with! I get messy eating spag bol with a fork so you should have seen me with chop sticks! After much laughter they relented and gave me a fork!

I have been fascinated with the huge amount of motorbikes and scooters in Hanoi and the ridiculous amount of things they carry on the back of them! Here is a short list of examples:
- 2 trees
- a huge pane of glass
- a huge metal doorframe
- a cage with about 6 dogs crammed in :(
- a cage full of lots of chickens
- 10 trays of about 50 eggs
- lots of dead animal meat - maybe pig?
- lots of huge rolls of fabric
- a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 small children
- 4 grown men!
And various other crazy amounts of things. I'll try to upload some photos as evidence!

I am really missing my choir but I have been singing lots of nursery rhymes every day so I'm keeping my voice in shape! I didn't realise there were quite so many versions of Wheels On The Bus! Inch Wincy Spider is currently my cousins favourite and Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes! They always stand up when that comes on and try to do the moves! Very cute! Sara took her first step the other day which was very exciting and yesterday Alisha said 'bye bye' very clearly!

So...it has been an interesting few weeks in Hanoi so far. I'm here, at my aunties house, until my friend Mark arrives on Monday - then we're off to travel down Vietnam and in to Cambodia for 3 weeks.

It has been lovely to spend time with my baby cousins in Singapore and Vietnam, they are lots of fun. It has also been really interesting seeing inside the Vietnamese way of life and experiencing all the local village life. It will be strange being away from the hustle and bustle of family life but it will be fun to get out on the road and see some new places. I'm ready for the next part of the adventure!