Ok im Nam now. 1 quid equals 38.000 dong!! its really confusing i bought a sandwich today and she asked me for 55000 dong! i got money out from the atm and im a Millionaire. Also everyones trying to rip you off. Either they want you to pay in Us dollars or they give you a strange conversion rate.

On our way into town we see french colonial houses with shutters on the windows which wouldnt look out of place in the South of France next to little shacks. we also see women with the funny pointed hats on walking with a stick on their shoulders balancing 2 bug baskets of fruit. a man drives past us with half a butcherd cow on the back of his scooter and live chickens in the basket on the front. We have arrived in Vietnam!

Got to our hostel in Old quarter, a milllion scooters zomming past beeping all night long, lovely and no hot water but what do you expect for 2quid a night. We have heard some relly nice things about a place called Halong Bay and the pictures of it looks amazing. Blue sky and sea sitting on a boat cruising about. It took us 4 hours in a mini bus with a psycho driver who uses the horn instead of the brake. We finally made it in one piece and it was the greyest day since grey monday 1856 in Greytown. Fuming!

we got ripped off for the tour though when we first arrived the man at the hostel told us Halong bay was going to be really nice, great weather 1 day tour for just $20. we thought sounds good to us, then he told us we could get a open bus ticket to tour Vietnam for $30 and it will definatly have a toilet. so we booked both without even shopping around! (first mistake) after we paid him the money we went out 10 seconds down the road we found a tourist information which did a 2 day 1 night tour for $25 and the bus for $20 and no busses have toilets!! we went back and told him that we wanted to cancel the tour as we found it cheaper and he reassured us that it was quality tour and we would have a great day and if the weather wasnt nice he would give us a refund. yeah right!

Then we asked if we could cancel the bus ticket as he had told us that there were toilets and everywhere else was 20 dollars.the owner conviently wasnt there so had to argue with the son again and they all told us that they had booked the ticket so we asked for the ticket to see it and then eventually after alot of shouting they slipped up and said that they paid for the ticket on the bus so we asked for our money back as there was no ticket they told us that they had no money there which we didnt believe and eventually got back half what they owed us and i made them sign a form saying they would give us the rest the next day. which they did with no problems! as we were leaving a english bloke was having a full on argument because the booked him a flight for $200 and he found it for $130 so we were not the only ones they tried to rip off

we still cruised about in halang bay but it just wasnt the same. we went to a little floating market which was cool and went into a few caves had a nice lunch. i also got speaking to an vietnam man who now lives in Washington Dc he had a really strong amercian accent and he told us about when his family and him were air lifted out of Saigon and how they went to the US to live.

Hanoi has got a really big french feeling from when vietnam was a french colony the buildings look like houses you would see in the south of france and on every street corner there is a women seeling baguettes and coffee, which is so strong i had one and i dont think im going to be able to sleep for a week!

today we went to Hoa Lo prison where the french kept Vietnamise prisoners, we also got to see a Guillotene which was used in the prison. In the Nam war US pows were kept here (the hanoi hilton). It was interesting to see and theres also a airpilots suit hanging there which was owned by John McCain (who is now running for the US President, he was shot down on a bombing raid during the war) 

Went to a really nice restrurant it was really posh and romantic, great food and cheap that will do us!

so we have now booked another bus ticket for $20 we are on it tonight for 16 hours with no toilet should be fun im going to take some immodium and sleeping tablets its the only way!!