Hey all!!!

wow ok so we've left a while since kats hospital saga so il have to go from there...when kat was fightin fit we packed up our dresses and various other items we wanted to send home and moved onto Hue... which i thought was 'oh no another big city' type place but really wasnt!! its literally 20mins drive and your out in the countryside with rolling hills etc very scenic, really nice!! we were debating on whether to go to the DMZ tour or Bach Ma national park, but it decided on bach ma, so us 3 and a canadian lad we'd met in Hoi an called Sam (who you'll probably see in our photos) hired a car to take us to the park, which was honestly like goin into another world us it was a 4km climb up the mountain to get there and was deep in the heart of the jungle... so we climbed to the summet and then went down a load of trails which lead to some amazign waterfalls, encountering along the way lots of spiders and leeches which was great!! we got soaked as we were basically in a raincloud but that added to the atmosphere and considering we got to sit at the top of a 300 metre waterfall, we didnt really care!! but we came back exhausted and thankful for a shower, only to go out again to the DMZ bar to play pool and relax!! the next day we took a motorbike tour round the sights which was really worth doing, we got to visit the temples and watch the monks praying, it was so peaceful, and it was really nice to just watch all the scenary from the bakc of a moped!!

The next day we packed up and moved on to hanoi on a sleeper bus....our first!!! i thought it was fine but Gareth couldnt sleep properly cos he couldnt fit in the bed properly... oh and i was next to a crazy vietnamese man who was playing awful music and talking really loudly on hisphone at about 5.30am...not happy... but we made it to hanoi and checked into a not all that nice hostel, we were just thankful for the beds!! we later got up and went for a walk around town... kat and Gareth went sightseeing but i stayed with sam and we went and got an icecream by the riverside! im not quiite sure if it was that evening but we went to see the vietnam symphony orchestra that night which was really good, and glad to say we got a bit of culture...although we were all falling asleep from the busjourney that morning!!

the next day me K & G got up and got a bus to halong bay. We got on the boat that we were goin to be spending the next 2 days, there was about 14 of us stayin on this boat in total.... they gave us lunch which was a kind of fresh seafood platter and thn we sat up the top and watched the islands go by (for once our picture is actually relevant because thats halong bay!) we stopped in some caves which were reat but the tour guide got on my nerves a bit with all his "guess which animal this rock looks like " but they were prety nonetheless....we later stopped in a harbour and went kayaking!! yay!! although they were 2 person kayaks and i ended up rowing for me and this guy ally who we met because we only had one paddle!! we stayed the night on the boat and sat up chatting and enjoying ourselves....the next day was great to just chill and sunbathe.... this im sure was all to ready ourselves for the 22hour busjourney we just endured!!]

We prety much got straight on the bus from hanoi to Vientiane where we are now and knew it wasnt goin to be fun..... but apart from these italians who werent all that nice we were the only tourists, it was very loud and none of us got all that much sleep, plus we were woken for the border crossing which was absolute mayhem and took a good hour and a half to get through so by the time we got to vientiane we were absolutely knackered and went prety much straight to bed...but not after having probably the best meal we've had so far!! today will probably be a relax day to recovering and bowling tonight as that a prety big thing here!! kats turn next so will keep you updated with our travels!!

all the best from Laos

lots of love

kat and nushxxx