Xin Chow!

Hey everyone, hope your all well. As most of you will probably know by now, Jess went home the day after we wrote our last blog. I have carried on into Vietnam, travelling with Katy.

My first stop was Ho Chi Minh City. We found a lovely guest house to stay in, which even had sky TV all for $6 a night between us! The city was so noisy ALL THE TIME, and the constant beeping of the cars and millions of motorbikes soon gets tiering. Our first night we went out for a few drinks, but we hadnt checked the exchange rate properly and thought that everything was really expensive so went home after a few, turns out it wasnt and we just cant do maths anymore... I spent a day visiting the Cu Chi tunnels, a network of underground tunnels where people hid from the americans during the war. i attempted to go down one of them that was still in its origional state, but got scared that id get stuck down it, it was so tiny and really hot. They had made a short section of one of the tunnels wider so that westerners can fit through it, it was still a tight squeeze though and pitch black in some sections. Im not claustrophbic at all, but even i started to get a little freaked out. We spent another day visiting the War museum, which was really harrowing but very interresing, we cheared ourselves up by going to a market in the night time and buying some souvineers.

After 3 days in the city, we were ready to hit the beach, so we got the bus up the coast to Nha Trang. We spent nearly a week here, despite not actually doing that much. The beach is really beautiful, and it was so hot that I spent most of the time that was on the beach, lying in the shade and sneaking into posh hotels pools! I visited a mud baths one day, but didnt reallyy like it that much, you just got to sit in a bath of muddy water, be hosed down with hight pressure jets and then they make you sit in a bath of water so hot that i felt dizzy when i got out....didnt really see why people love it so much, plus im conviced it took some of my tan away! not impressed! I also spent a day on a diving trip, we sailed out to 2 islands and did an ours diving at each, the water was so warm and ou could see for about 15 meters. i saw a seahorse, a cuttle fish (at the time i thought it was an octopus...apparently not) which changed colour as it moved over the corals and some squid.

The next stop was Hoi An. It was really pretty and quite similar to Luang Praband in Laos in that there were alot of old french colonial buildings. Although there is a beach here, i never actually made it, its 4k's away and the main reason why people come to Hoi An is beacuase the town is full of dressmakers shops who if you bring a picture or a garment they will copy it exactly...very dangerous, you can even get boots and trainers etc made. Imanaged to only buy 1 dress and got one of my favourite tops coppied in a bright yellow fabric with ships on it (way better than it sounds.) After 2 days of visiting dressmakers for fittings, Katy and i deceded we should probably do some sightseeing, we made it as far as a japaneese bridge, took a picture, then decided it was way too hot to be walking around so went to find a cup of tea and read outr books! Hoi an has a pretty good nightlife, everyone seems to go to one bar called Before and Now, mainly because there is always somethign on special offer....we met a really good group of people here and one of the girls Ashley is going to be in the Islands in Thailalnnd at the same time as me so weve arranged to meet up for a few days.

Hue, is all about sightseeing, so we went on a motorbike tour for the day, so we could get around everything in one day. It was so much fun and there was only 4 of us so we could spend as long as we wanted at each sight, without being herded around like you usually are on tours. We went to the Citadel, which is like a city within a city, the first pagoda (temple) to be built in northern Vietnam, an arena that the king had built towatch elephants and tigers fighting, we saw incence being made by hand, paddy fields, and the tools they still use to work them by hand and we watched monks chanting. It was an awsome day and i loved riding onthe back of the motorbikes (dont worry mom, i wore a helmet and im not going to buy one when i get back.)

Leaving Hue, the overnight bus journey was one of the most stressful iv had so far... the company had sold us a ticket for a buswhich was already full, and despite being at the front of the queue, the driver refussed to let me put my baggae in the hild, pushing us away, and only letting on vietnamese people. Katy had managed to get her bag on, but as we are on the same ticket she couldnt get on the bus without me, by which time the bus was full and the driver refused to get katys bag off. so she stood in the doorway of the bus so it couldnt drive off and shouted till they gave her her bag back. We managed to force our way onto the next bus that came, the bads were so small that i couldnt fit my legs int he compartment to lie down, but also couldnt sit up cuz the ceiling was so low, i eventually managed to sqeeze myself in then couldnt move for 12 hours. The roads were worse than in cambodia and it felt like bing on a rollercoaster, dont know how many times i came full out of the seat the banged back down again, i came off the bus with bruised ribs!

I arrived in Hanoi at 6 in the morning,found a hotel and went of for a wonder around the city. I visited a prison ( the only thing open that i could actually find on the map) and organised a 3 day trip to Halong Bay, which i set off on the next morning. It was a 3 hour bus ride to Halong city, where about 30 of us boarded an old boat called a 'junk', and cruised around the islands. the senery was amazing and the boat was beautiful, my cabin was nicer than most hotels iv been staying in and even had a hot powershower! in the afternoon we all went on a 3 hour kayak trip out to a cave, which was pretty cool. Katy and i were in the kayak together and just could not keep it going in a straight direction, when we finally made it back to the boat, everyone else was already drinking ther beers.

The next day, my arms still killing me from the rowing we went to Cat Ba island, where we trecked up to a look out point. I had to do it in flip flops as my trainers got wrecked in Chiang Mai, thank god it wasnt raining, and i only fell down twice.

I am flying to Bangkok on the 16th June, so rather than spend a week in Hanoi, i have come up to Sapa in the far north, right by the border to China. Im currently in my guest house up in the mountains. Its so high up that theres clouds all around. Tomorrow im walking down to one of the villages. Being so high up, its really cold here, well its about 20 degrees, but i went out this afternoon with a cardi, scalf and wooly hat on, hadnt realised how much iv aclimatised to the heat here. our room doesnt have a fan because it doesnt get hot enough here, and im highly excited about sleeping under a real quilt instead on nothing.

When i arrive in Bangkok im hoping to be able to get a bus straight down to the Islands on the East coast. Two friends from Queenstown, Jessica and Selia, are flying into Thailand on the 14th June so hopefully il be able to catch up with them for a while. Me and Katy are parting ways on the bus for a few days whilst she finishes her diving course in Koh Tao, and il be on Kho Samui, but we are meeting up again in Kho Phangan for my birthday and there is a black moon party 2 days after. thats my plan so far...

Thank you to everyone who sent me messages and emails over the past couple of weeks, i really appreciated all of them.

Jess, i hope you've settled back into normal life again, and havnt overdosed on cheese and squash! I miss you!!

Lots of love

Karen xx