Hello all......... I read in a local Vietnamese paper today that Bill Gates has paid the Vietnam capital a visit in order to hopefully increase their information technology industry out here.......and having been here a week, i can without fail say that they need his help!!! Few internet establishments have more than one computer, and if they do they run at a snails pace........and cd drives for loading photos are pretty non-existent........however yesterday we found a rarity, and I am now able to fill you in on what i have been up to in these past eleven days! Firstly, be rest assured that all is still going fantastic, and my new travelling companian Anja and I have been busy little bees of late! After four days in Hanoi, exploring the local streets, the local markets and the beautiful central lake of Hanoi Old Quarter, we felt it was time to head to North East Vietnam, Halong Bay! Halong is a vast selection of islands, 1969 to be exact, of all shapes and sizes, and we booked ourselves on a tour to travel through them via boat! the tour began last Friday, and on our way to Halong we met some lovely people........including the friendly Aussies Gwilym and Emily ( Winchester guys and gals, check out the website as Emily is the spitting image of our very own Juliet Condy- seriously weird!!), Jo and Naomi from Bristol and Richard and Cath from Ealing........(Claire and Sam, Richard works for Entertainment UK in Hayes.....small world eh!!?). So we boarded our boat......so lovely....and headed for the rocks, mountains and open sea! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful views, and first stop was the 'Suprising Cave'..which was huge......and a fantastic sight..........and then back on board as we headed to a view point, which was a bit of a steep climb, so instead Anja and I decided to stay at the bottom with Gwil and Em and watch the view from the top on their camera as they had climbed it earlier.........cheeky i know......but that cliff was no small feat to climb, so we stayed on flat land!! ha ha The tour included an amazing array of seafood, all freshly caught and cooked, and then bed time called.........or so we thought..........a late night knock on the cabin from Rich and Cath made it clear we were not going to bed just yet, as they had spotted what is known as flosforescent algae in the sea...............Rich jumped in the pitch black, dark sea, and as he did the ripples around him were like fairy lights....with every movement he made the algae would light up, and was like a mad mass of fireworks underwater.........it wasnt long before i donned my swimmers and joined him..........wow wow wow......was amazing......even better in the water.....was like holding fairy lights in my fingers as i swam through the black sea. the darker the water, the brighter they were, and as the girls watched from the side we created a mass of light in the water. The algae is movement sensitive, so as it is moved it lights up, the brightest green and white........is hard to explain, but was a surreal experience, and one not to forget! Day two of the trip saw us on a 3 hour morning kayak, through the many islands, and into lagoons and caves galore.......was fantatsic....and arms like lead after all that paddling!! A trip to Monkey beach to see the wild monkeys roaming free, and then a beach side bbq, and we made our way to Cat Ba island where we were staying for the night. It is one of the many islands here, but only a few allow you to stay and have working villages etc, so it was nice to not be swaying and rocking on a boat for a bit!!!........plus we stayed in a nice hotel for the night, inc in the trip, so a bonus! Day 3 and we cruise for the day heading back to Halong Bay port to catch the minibus back to Hanoi....was a fantastic three days..............next stop Northern Vietnam.....Sapa Valley......known for its rolling mountains, deep valleys and trekking!!! So this is where i am now.......the beautiful Sapa Valley. we decided to find our way around once here, so didnt book onto an organised trek so we could save the pennies..........as funds for this travelling malarky are not limitless unfortunately!!! Once here we booked ourselves into a guest house, and recovered from the overnight train journey!! Had some dinner and then prepared ourselves for a day of trekking yesterday.............a route we decided to make up ourselves and do alone, we were up bright and early yesterday....ready to tackle the mountains...........day packs and sandwiches for a picnic stop....... we head off...........well well well...........18km (at least!!) later, and we managed to walk all up hill, towards some sodding waterfall, that really wasnt as spectacular as we had hoped........cream crackered, and calves of steel.......we were true mountain hikers.........! Along the way we had numerous people on mopeds stop to say how impressed they were with us walking, and that they wouldnt do it, and offering us lifts...ha ha........it was reassuring, but a little worrying that no one else was walking this route.............on the journey back, by now every muscle aches, and all we can do is laugh at the journey we have ahead of us, and plan our camping technique should we still be out after night fall.....when some lovely New Zealand men Dean and Grant, who had past us on numerous occasions along the way up, drove past and once again offered us a lift.........we were straight on!!! ha ha.........and thank goodness we did, as we have both woken up this morning feeling like we've run the marathon...........twice!! ha ha! Was a fantatsic day though, the views spectacular, and the local villagers we met along the way were reassuring and friendly and hospitable...........they laughed at us "silly Western girls walking big mountain without moto power" as they would put it..........and along the way we had the company of different groups of village kids who would walk with us until they reached their school or their house in the hills.....was very humbling. So....today....we are hanging around in the Sapa town until this evening when we board our overnight train back to Hanoi, and then straight onto an overnight bus heading South......first stop Hue! Vietnam has an amzing 'hop on, hop off' bus service through the whole country, which you can use at your own leisure, hoping on and off as you please, and costs a mere 14 english pounds for the lot, and takes us all the way to Saigon before we enter into country number 5........Cambodia! Well.........hope you are all well, and i will be in touch once Hue has been travelled and explored and we move onto another unsuspecting town or village! ha Lots of love to you all Ellen x