After leaving Vang Vieng we headed south to Vientienne, Laos capital. It was quite disappointing, we only stayed one day and got the bus in the evening to Vietnam. It was the biggest mistake ever, never getting the bus to Vietnam. It took us 22 hours. The driver stopped around 1 in the morning and we stayed at the check point until 6. We finally got off, went to the office to get our stamp out of Laos, nobody could speak a single word of english, everybody pushing and try to get first to the counter. After that we had to get the stamp to enter Vietnam. It was raining, mist and didn t know where to go. We went back to the bus and the told us to get the stamp...but where??? Nobody could help us. Eventually we figured we had to cross the bridge, couldn t even see a meter ahead. We got there, got the stamp, got our bags out the bus to get them checked and then they sent us out saying the bus was ready to go... not really. The bus was still being checked, we waited half hour under the rain, and after that we had to travel for 6 hours with wet cloths, not pleasant at all. We arrived in Hanoi around 6-7 in the evening, got a hostel and left to get something to eat...HELP!!! This city is mental!!! There is not footpath, it has become a parking space for motorbike, u have to walk in the street and around you 100 scooters going in every direction beeping for u to move. Really stressfull!!! The next day we tried to explore the city. Me and Brian took different paths after i went ballistic. So I walked around the lake, sat down and ahad a chat with a vietnamise girl, Hai. She was very nice, pity her english was quite poor. Brian and I finally found each other in the hotel room and headed to the centre again to see the water puppet show. I relly enjoyed it. Think of a puppet, u know the regular one with strings attached to feet and hands... no not quite. All the action was in the water so the puppet were moved from under the water using some kind of sticks. There is a "band" accompaning the play with traditional Vietnamise music, which is good since the play is completely in vietnamise.
We after went to a restaurant suggested to us by an australian couple the night before, really nice with view over the lake.

And finally we left the city for a tour to Ha long bay. It was pretty cool, (unfortunately i had been sick all day in my cabin), we visited a couple of caves, and when i woke up we where at the bay. It was really cool, with little island all around, the the lights of the other boats surrounding us. After dinner we played some karaoke, they are mad into it, it was actually good fun!!! We stayed up until late talking to the guys from the grous, it was about ten of us.
In the morning at 6 kajaky, breakfast and next destination Catba island. After one hour trekking in the national park (that really killed me) me and Brian rented a scooter, went to the beach and around. In the evening went to a westner pub, but the music was really loud so i stayed outside talking to the guide and a filippine guy and finally sleepy.
The return was really unconfortable, but we didn t have enough of the road, so we decided to get the night train to Sapa, a little town on the mountains.
When we got there at 6 in the morning we were surrounded by 8-9 hotel staff trying to convince us to go to their hotel, please gimme a sec, i m still sleeping!!! We finally got one after hiding in a caffe' and walked around. It s very nice, the minority people come over to u to sell you something, with their traditional clothes...Problem is: if u stop with one u ll have 20 around you the next second.
We booked a trekking tour for two days. It was quite easy, unfortunately the whole time downhill, my poor legs!!! We stopped at the different minoriti people villages, at the school, at the craft shops... And in the evening we slept with a family, and i had finally the best food in Vietnam so far!!!
We joined another group in the evening in a guesthouse nearby and we did the bamboo dancing. There are 6 people opposite to each other holding bamboo sticks getting them close and far to each other. Then a couple has to jump in when the sticks are away and out when the get close. It was really fun!! We spent there some more time and the gou to bed.
The second day we didn t do much, walked to the waterfall and back to the hotel. Pretty poor. And the final day we walked on top of one of the mountains, it was kind of a labirynth with different paths and rocks, really nice... But it s time to go back to Hanoi and book our next destination... Hue