Hello everyone! Hope you are all well.

Writing this post in a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in Southern Vietnam. We arrived this morning!

We've had a busy week exploring Vietnam. My friend Mark arrived in Hanoi on the 1st of October and we spent the afternoon and next day exploring the city, we visited the temple on the lake and ate lots of yummy food in the Old Quarter of the city. We enjoyed exploring the rambling streets of the Old Quarter and we somehow managed to find our way back to our hotel without a map!

The next day we went on a 1 night/2 day tour of Halong Bay. It's a 3 hour mini bus drive to Halong Bay through the lovely countryside. I had been before 3 years ago with my family so I was excited to show Mark the amazing scenery of Halong Bay. I really love it. If you haven't seen the Top Gear episode about Halong Bay then you should really check it out on YouTube! We arrived on the boat and had an amazing lunch of seafood, chicken, rice and vegetables, the food was really great! There were about 21 people on our boat from all over the world, it was great to meet everyone and get tips about where to visit in Vietnam! Me and Mark had a twin room on the boat which was really snazzy! I think Mark was pleasantly surprised with how lovely it was! After lunch we took a smaller boat and went on land to visit one of the biggest caves in Halong Bay. It took about 45 minutes to walk around the cave and was a welcome escape from the blazing sunshine! We then did an hour of kayaking around the bay which was so fun! Me and Mark loved racing around and taking photos of the beautiful rock formations. After that we went to a beach and I paddled in the sea. Mark and I climbed to the top of the hill to look at the amazing view, I got very tired out from all the stairs! It was worth it for the view though! We had a great evening on the boat chatting to our boat mates and enjoying 'happy hour' cocktails! We met some lovely people from New Zealand and Holland, Australia, America and Singapore. The next day we sat on the roof of the boat in sun loungers, only to be drenched with rain shortly afterwards! We spent the remaining few hours sat inside the boat looking out of the shutters at the incredible scenery. It was a lovely relaxing few days, a great escape from the buzzing city and a lovely feeling gently bobbing along in the sea! Very peaceful.

The evening we returned from Halong Bay we embarked on a 14 hour train journey from Hanoi to De Nang! We had a soft sleeper carriage and I slept on the bottom bunk. We were joined by 2 Vietnamese business men in our carriage and they went straight off to sleep! We started the journey at 11pm. There were also a few cockroaches in our carriage so I wrapped myself up tightly in my sleeping bag liner and actually had a great nights sleep! I think the rocking of the train helped me drift off to sleep! We arrived in De Nang about 1.15 the next day and got a 45 minute taxi to Hoi An (after much haggling with the taxi men!) We shared a taxi with a couple from Belgium and we decided to go and check out the hotel they had booked at. It turned out to be a lovely hotel that had only been open for 4 months and had an amazing swimming pool and every room had a balcony! We thought we'd enjoy a few days of luxury for $15 a night each!

We had a lovely few days exploring Hoi An and wandering the old streets of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a lot quieter than Hanoi and the streets were much less busy! It has a lovely harbour and wonderful old shops and restaurants. It is famous for its tailor shops and every other shop was a tailors! It is also famous for its lanterns and we enjoyed looking at the shops and bridge covered in lanterns lit up at night! Beautiful colours! We enjoyed some yummy food in Hoi An and tasted some local specialties such as Rose Dumplings and chicken, rice and veg marinated in spices and cooked in a banana leaf - very yum! Mark loves it in Vietnam because beer is the same price as soft drinks! I wish I liked beer! On one of our days in Hoi An there was a tropical storm - lots of heavy rain, strong winds and thunder and lightning! The streets quickly turned to rivers and the river overflowed on to the street a bit! We didn't mind too much as it gave us a good excuse to hop between cafes and restaurants and just eat and drink our way around the town! I invested in an amazing purple plastic poncho that covers me all the way to my ankles! All the locals are wearing them on their motorbikes!

The next day we had an amazing cycle ride to the beach 15 minutes from our hotel. It was blazing sunshine and Mark got quite sun burnt! Oops! It was great to cycle past rice paddies and locals fishing in the river. We saw water buffalo (I think?!) grazing in the rice fields. We lounged in the shade on sun loungers on the beach and sat there for ages just watching the sea and enjoying listening to the waves - it was beautiful! We then had lunch at our hotel and enjoyed a dip in the pool to cool off! Oh how I love a good swim! In the afternoon we explored the town some more and bought a few presents! As night fell we randomly bumped in to the lovely Dutch couple we had met on our Halong Bay trip! It was such a nice surprise and we ended up having dinner together - what a lovely chance meeting!

This morning Mark and I got up super early (6am!) to get a flight from De Nang to Ho Chi Minh at 9.10am. The flight was only an hour (as opposed to an 18 hour train ride!) so we were here in no time! We stumbled in to the 1st decent looking hotel we could see and then quickly went out to make the most of the day! It was scorchingly hot so after a bite to eat and a little bit of wandering we decided we should head inside to cool off! We decided to go to The War Remnants Museum as it's supposed to be the best museum in the city. It was really interesting and obviously very harrowing. There were lots of photographs of victims of the Vietnam War and various artifacts and old American planes. I learnt that the famous war photographer Robert Capa actually died in Vietnam during the war by standing on a land mine. There was lots of information about Agent Orange and the various chemicals that were dropped on the country. It was horrible to read about and see photographs of the horrible war crimes - but it was very interesting to learn about.

We have got a bus few days planned...we are doing a half day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels tomorrow to see the tunnels used during the war. Then on Wednesday we are doing a day tour to the Mekong Delta to go on a boat trip and see the floating river markets. On Thursday morning we are getting a 6 hour coach to Phnom Penh in Cambodia to stay for a few days and then heading up to Siem Reap. Lots to see and do! We will try to relax inbetween lots of sight seeing!

Right I think its dinner time now so I better sign off...but I hope everyone is ok and sending lots of love to you all from a very hot and humid Ho Chi Minh!

Take care, lots of love xxxxx