It's been a week since I last wrote a blog, it's been so busy and it's hard finding computers in Vietnam. So last Wednesday we flew to Hanoi, which was only a 2 hour flight and then got a taxi to the Hanoi backpackers hostel which is recommended by everyone. When we got there it was full of young people all our age which was soo nice! We'd been used to all ages, so it was really good to meet people and chat etc. The dorms were really nice aswell, we got a 12 bed female dorm, they were all nice iron framed bunk beds and terracota tiled floors! We booked our bus ticket which is a hop on hop off kind of ticket which will take us all the way down to Ho Chi Minh City, and we also booked on to the boat trip to Halong bay which was on Thursday and Friday.On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays they have a BBQ on the roodtop so we went up there and just got chatting to loads of people. We met some people who were going on the boat trip too so that was cool.

We had to leave really early on Thursday morning as it was a 4 hour bus journey to the sea to get on th jolly roger! You could so tell ours was the party boat cos all 30 of us had green and yellow sombrero hats on haha! The boat was really nice, really dark wood, wide flat bottomed boat (so didn't rock too much!) and had lots of really nice sun-loungers on the top deck. We checked in to our rooms on the boat (there was only about 20 rooms) and then once the boat had stopped somewhere we all jumped in. Halong bay is so so beautiful, there are hundreds of big rock/islands just coming out of the sea..you'll have to look at photos when I can manage to put them up! The water was really greeny blue too! We then got in canoes and paddled for about 45minutes..such a good arm work out, around some of the big rocks to a massive cave. We walked around the cave for a bit, there were loads of different areas and lots of stalagtites and stalacmites, and then a small lagoon, was really cool! Then had to paddle all the way back to the boat, was really fun though!! We all dried off and then had dinner on the boat and then it was happy hour so we just spent the evening playing drinking games. Was a great evening. We met two girls from Liverpool who we got on with really well but they had travelled up Vietnam which was a shame as we could've gone down with them! On Friday we just spent the morning on the deck and then came back to Hanoi, went up for the BBQ on the rooftop again and just chilled out.

Saturday was our day around Hanoi, so we spent it with Chloe and Laura..the liverpudlians. There really wasn't much to see though apart from a big lake so we spent most of the day in cafes drinking tea and eating ice cream lol! It was quiet chilly as it's quite far north so wasn't sunny at all! We got on the sleeper bus to Hue at 8pm which took 11 hours. It was really uncomfortable, I didn't really know what to expect..it was three rows of bunk-beds going down the bus, they weren't very long and they slanted up by the head so it wasn't flat. It was such a bumpy ride though so didn't really sleep!

We got to Hue on Sunday morning and checked in to the Hue backpackers, which is owned by the same Aussies as the Hanoi one, so was really similar. Just full of young people again :). We met three Argentinians on the bus (one was half English) so we spent the day with them wandering around Hue in the pouring rain!! We all had our macs on and were just drenched! All there was to see in Hue was the citidel but it wasn't that great, it had been really damaged in the war, but was good to see. We came back to the hostel and just spent the afternoon warming up, drinking tea and eating chocolate :)! Was really nice just to relax a bit, the whole trip so far has been on the go the whole time which is great too, but it's nice sometimes just to do nothing! So yeah, we literally stayed in the bar area from 1pm-11pm!!! We met some English guys who were really funny and they were goin gto Hoi An on Monday too. So Hue wasn't that great at all really, could definitely have missed it out but it broke up the journey for a bit.

The bus to Hoi An only took 5 hours so wasn't too bad and go there at lunch time. We just headed for a hotel that was recommended in our guide book which was only 4.50 a night so pretty good! We got a double room which was so nice, means you can spread your stuff everywhere and not have to lock it all up lol! We walked around the town and got a drink by the river..home-brewed beer for 20p!! Hoi An is definitely the best place we've been to so far (apart from Hong Kong), it's so so nice! All the streets look the same, pretty much all the buildings are painted yellow and have dark wood windows, and it's just sooo chilled out. Quite a few mopeds and bikes still but it's just so much quieter than any other town, especially compared to India!! You can just walk around and look in shops whichout being hassled. ALL the shops sell exactly the same things though..the same jewellery and pashminas and bowls etc and then there are literally about 300 tailors. Hoi An is famous for its tailoring, we weren't going to get anything done, but some girls in the hostel in Hue got coats made and they said they were really cheap. So we wandered around until we found a design we liked and got measured up..$30 for a tailored coat! Mine is black and more of a thin coat.

There isn't much to see in Hoi An but it's just got a great atmosphere. We wandered around and then got dinner by the river too (which is really narrow). This morning we went to a place called the Cargo Club for breakfast, it was recommended by some friends from Durham who went there a couple of years ago and it was incredible!! 2pounds for juice, tea, lots of freshly baked rolls and jams, poached eggs on toast with hollandaise sauce and bacon.. amazing! So that definitely filled us up for the rest of the day lol! We went to see if our coats were ready, mine was but they'd made it a little bit too big so it's being adjusted at the moment. It was really nice though, I asked for a bright pink trim bit inside where the lining meets the outside material, just to make it a bit unique, I love it! We're going to walk over to the island in a bit to see what's over there and then we've got tomorrow day here too before getting the sleeper bus down to Na Trang.

So Vietnam so far has been great, didn't really like Hanoi or Hue but Halong bay and Hoi An have been great! It's really nice meeting lots of people, they're mostly all from England so it's really cool! Really looking forward to going to Ho Chi Minh and on the Mekong!!