Well our 2nd stop is/was Hanoi, capital of Viet frikking nam! Having been here before I knew how wonderfully crazy the place is and my view has not changed 1 bit...the place is unbelievably buzzing, busy, crazy, mental and yet strangely calm when walking around the huge man made lake in the centre of all the action. millions of mopeds drive round and round the streets and just crossing the road is hilarious...just walk confidently and they will veer round you..just not the buses so watch out for them!!

Little shops serve freshly brewed pilsner bia hoi for 15p a glass, I could get smashed for a quid! However, this time travelling is much more about the culture (having hit 30) and so whilst the first 2 days it rained we did the most cultural thing possible...visited the huge, new shopping mall just outside of town!! this place is basically the trafford centre underground, with appartments on the top. We watched 2 films in 2 days and went to the humongous water park. The place was a fiver to get in and dead in the midweek daytime so we went on slide after slide (1 you stand in, inside a dome that then drops below you! Goes without saying I bricked myself each time, see the pics: but at least I did it, walshy having bottled it with 1 foot inside!). We also treated ourselves to a hot stone massge for an hour which was class and only 7 quid each!

Throw in some cheap clothes buying in the night market (a north face rain jacket for me..thinking I'm cool, and a couple of funky trousers for walshy, that are a bit tight round her J Lo backside) and thats been all. We did do the culture thing in the Vietnamese history museum so we're not all bad. Oh and watched the spurs v chelsea game in the hanoi hilton in plush surroundings. We've also picked up our wedding rings for a grand total of 60 quid....yeah I know...ridiculously expensive but I suppose it is our wedding which we only intend to do once so why not splash out!!

Inbetween all this we've visited the wonderful Halong Bay (natural wonder of the world for 2 days with an overnight stop on the boat). Again I already knew how stunning it is having been with Munro last time around. However, with Munro I saw the sun go down on the beautiful place...this time around involved smoking a huge water bong...somehow I think this should have been the other way around!!

So now it's onto Hong Doi to visit Paradise Cave, supposedly 1 of the largest caves in the world and meant to be quite stupendous! Before that though it's the overnight sleeper bus..whether the pictures of the luxury bus shown to us is what we will actually ride on remains to be seen! As long as I'm not using a chicken as a pillow it's ok with me.