Xin chao!

After a very early and tiresome journey with taxis and a flight we finally arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam. We are staying in the old quarter part of town and find it surprisingly picturesque. Never seen so many scooters. 60% of the Hanoi population own a scooter and the pavements are used to park them. Means you have to walk in the road and avoid more scooters. Scooters are used to carry everything, trees, massive boxes, .....pigs. Carol and Shaun, we saw a bike carrying 5 pigs, just like your photo, the rider was on a mission, so we werent quick enough to take a photo!

The area feels quite clean and its been fairly cool here (mid 20s). Our hotel manager could sell ice to eskimos. Within a few hours of checking in we had a weeks worth of tours booked. The weather forecast isn't looking great, but its now or never. After a day in Hanoi, we soon picked up some Vietnamese; "bar sarfy farmy" = "buy something from me", "I gee oo speesha pry" = "I give you special price", "hay meesta way yo car farm yar wan taxi?" = "hey gullible looking white guy, where do you come from, do you want a taxi?"Our response is still "Sark" and "No thanks".

Had some delicious seafood whilst sat on a plastic chair on the pavement, whilst trying to resist the very persistent and slightly aggressive selling techniques of the locals. Compared to India, food here is very expensive, but accomodation much cheaper. The currency exchange is also confusing ie £1 = 30000 Vietnamese Dong, so one London burger costs over half a million dong. Everyone's a millionaire. Food is pretty tasty, beef noodle soup is amazing. Coffee blows your head off its so strong, and a white coffee is actually made with condensed milk. Its so sweet, and fattening so no chances of getting skinny in Asia. Wine is still really expensive and bad so we drink beer instead, oh well, if the coffee doesn't fatten us up then the beer will. Oh and we are really impressed that everywhere you go you can pick up free Wi-Fi.

The following morning we were picked up from hotel and taken on bus to Halong Bay to start our first trip. We are spending the night on our boat with 14 other travellers. Halong Bay is a world heritage site and an assortment of enormous rocks in a large bay. Its very beautiful and very popular with tourists. The day was spent kayaking in the bay, entering an enormous cave, visiting a floating village, swimming off our boat, gorging on amazing food and drinking beer on the deck with our very sociable group of travellers.

The following day we got to relax and go swimming on monkey island. We had our own beach bungalow and there was a buffet, gutted I didn't bring my buffet plate. Weather has been overcast but relatively dry, so no complaints. Was refreshing to mix with other travellers, we met some amazing people and picked up some great travelling tips. People were very interested in our India travels. I feel my honesty has done little to promote tourism in India.

After an amazing boat trip with some amazing people, we went straight onto a night train, destination Sapa. This train put India's first class cabins to shame, also we weren't sharing our cabin with farting snorers, for a change. Sapa is in the north west of Vietnam next to the Chinese border. The area is mountainous, composed of small villages and quite distinct in appearance due to the contour resembling lines of the sloping terraces where rice is grown. Its also milder and perfect for trekking. This would also be a great chance to experience some "real" Vietnamese villages. It seems the main industry here is making bracelets and bags with elephants stitched on them and the villages here are comprised solely of small shops selling them. We did spend some time with an Israeli couple and learned loads about their culture and history, but none about Vietnamese.

Our first night was in a hotel and our second was in a home-stay. Again we opted for the home-stay as it would be great to live with and experience life with a local family. I didn't know Vietnamese families try to sell each other bracelets whilst they're eating dinner. Despite not being the "authentic experience" we'd hoped for, we did get very drunk playing drinking games with rice wine (rank) with our fellow travellers. The walking during the tour was good although not very arduous. The scenery was incredible. Our tour guide did the 12km walk with us whilst carrying her 7 month old baby on her back, respect.

We went for a snack near the train station before returning on the night train back to Hanoi. The american girl we were with, sarah, got very excited when she saw.....DOG on the menu. Anyway, dog meat smells of liver, worse actually, she had 2 bites and gave up. The train was delayed by 8 hours and we had to change midway, this meant we arrived into Hanoi 10 hours late. We got to sleep in the train whilst on station and ended up spending 21 hours stuck in the train. We had to reschedule our night bus and spend another night in Hanoi.

Our night bus to Hue went without a hitch. The bus was super modern and very clean. We actually managed to get some sleep and not arrive with neck ache.Our plan to spend more time in fewer places has failed miserably. In the last 13 nights, we have slept in 12 different beds. However, whenever things feel bad, we can't help but think "well, at least we're not in India". We actually feel quite grateful for visiting India first because now our expectations could not be lower and so wherever we go we won't be disappointed. On the subject of India, we were devastated to hear about Sarah Groves. Please could anyone reading this please spare a thought or a prayer for her and her family.

Well we shall leave it at that for now, we have loads of photos but we have lost them! Temporarily we think, so when they turn up we shall post them.