Hi Everyone,

So we left Hanoi on a night bus which was an interesting experience - the bus is set out in bunk beds (photo will be on Facebook). The first few hours consisted of the bus conductor constantly channel hopping through various films and flicking the lights on to different modes (very annoying), we then stopped off at some putrid service station before continuing. After very little sleep we were dropped off on the main drag in Dong Hoi at 4am. We had no idea where we were, when we were surrounded by about 5 men on scooters trying to persuade us to get a lift them. Luckily there was another couple with us so we just followed them to their hotel. Dong Hoi isn't really on the main tourist trail, on our first day some teenagers asked for a photo with us, then some kids started hysterically laughing at us and then we noticed EVERYONE was staring at us, as they weren't used to seeing white people.

We went to Dong Hoi as it is the nearest place to Phong Nha Cave (one of the biggest caves in the world). On the way to visit the cave we stopped for lunch with the rest of the people on the minibus, who were all Vietnamese and ate with chopsticks - we opted for a spoon, although eating the noodles proved challenging. The cave was interesting but there were that many tourists there that it wasn't as impressive as we thought it would be (or for the person who first found it!). It probably didn't help that the tour guide smelt of BO and kept taking photos of Christina on his phone. After the cave we got a minibus that made the most deafening whining noise all the way to Hue.

When we got to Hue we went for a meal at the Mandarin Café (directed by a woman who sat in the reception a lot, who was partially blind but knew everything about Hue - so much so that we referred to her as The Oracle). The Mandarin Café was great, the owner is a photographer with galleries around the world so it was nice to look through all his pictures. We then went to a bar next door which was actually giving away free beer all night! It was also decorated bizarrely (including some Christmas decorations). In the following days we also found a really nice French bakery, which used its profits to train poor people in Vietnam how to cook and then sold the produce they made. Hue is a historical city, so after looking at a museum with some old American tanks and helicopters in, we did what every person should do when looking around a historical city - we bought a kite. After playing with that for an hour or so, we gave it to a Vietnamese boy.

We then got the bus to Hoi An - Hoi An is a beautiful little town with a river running through it. There are lanterns everywhere and at night people release floating lanterns down the river, making it really spectacular. We ended up staying in Hoi An for five nights as the bus was fully booked. We ate some gorgeous food and chilled by the pool (when not disturbed by a group of four young lads who were like a not funny version of the Inbetweeners and enjoyed playing catch with a flip flop). On one of the days we hired some bikes and rode to the beach - where we saw a man having a wash in the sea and brushing his teeth with sand! On the ride back Christina managed to get her shoelace stuck in the bike so had to do a tactical fall into a pile of leaves to untangle it.

It was a really lovely place to chill out (especially once we realised that pretending to not understand English kept the pesky sales people at bay). We are now in Nha Trang - but we'll save that for next time.

Pictures will follow, when we get somewhere that will let us on Facebook.

Hope everyone is ok at home!

Lots of love xxx