Greetings from Hanoi!

Since I've last wrote, here are some funny things that have happened to me.

Firstly, in Hue, me and Emma were in the supermarket looking for sanitary towels. In our failed attempted we tried to ask some shop assistances. They had no idea what we meant. Eventually after trying to demonstrate a bad belly and 'a period' the women at the till looked like they knew what we were talking about. Ahhhh they said as they led us to the isle that sold... Lady Diapers!!! Not quite what we were wanting. But now 3 shop assistance were sneakily giggling at the thought we might need to wear nappies!

After finding out the tampons were in the food section, rather than the health and beauty section, we finally found them. Then there was the task of getting out the shopping centre. I swear this heat has been killing my brain cells, as now we don't just manage to get lost around town, we also struggle to find our way out of shops and once again got lost!

Whilst in Hue, we also realised our navigating skills were so bad we even took my compass out with us to find out what direction the hotel was. But then we realised that we didn't really know how to use a compass and gave up on that idea too.

So now we are in Hanoi. We arrived here last week at 4am! We couldn't check into our hotel till 12 so me and Emma walked all the way to the Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum where we actually got to see his dead body. He died about 30 years ago but they had preserved his body. It was really strange and in fact I was actually quite scared before going in. He just looked like a wax model though.

That afternoon after we had finally got showered and changed, me and Emma jumped on a cyclo each to get to this certain road we wanted to go to. Well this was the scariest cyclo journey I have ever been on in my life. For those that don't know what one is, you basically are sat in a chair which is attached to a bicycle and someone cycles you around. Well the roads here are crazy, bikes and cars just everywhere! Firstly we start going down a one way street, in the wrong direction. Next thing I know we are going down this road and there is this bus coming. The cyclo starts to pull out in front of the bus as we need to get to the other side of the road. I'm looking at this bus thinking s*** that driver is not looking at the road!!! All of a sudden this bus is coming right up to us! He stops in front of us with literally 2 inches to spare. I could put my hand up and actually touch the bus. It was the scariest moment ever and I seriously thought that this was it, I'm a gonn'a. After that the crazy cyclist was just all over the place, I thought he just wanted to kill himself today or something. When we finally got to the end, I had to sit down for 5 minutes as I was so close to throwing up. That was the worst journey I had ever been on in my life. Never again will I be going on one of them.

On Friday we went to Ha Long Bay. This is one of the most amazing places I have ever been to. Check it out on Google, it is stunning. We went on this boat ride and it was brilliant. We stopped at one of the caves so we could look inside. This was really spectacular. We travelled some more on the boat until we came to some gorgeous clean water. Here we had an hour stop so we could get off the boat and swim. The scenery here was just beautiful. At first, being the big wimp I am, I didn't want to get in the water. After lots of persuasion and what I like to call 'peer presure' I finally got in. I so didn't regret it. The water was so warm and peaceful. Obviously I only stayed in for 10 minutes, but that was enough for me. I can now say I have swam in Halong Bay! Cool!

We stayed that night on Cat Ba Island. After dinner we all took a walk around the waterfront. Here I became somewhat of a celebrity. There was this family who wanted their photos taken with me! They even had a professional photographer there! So I had to pose with all these people. They loved it! I wonder where these photos will end up? Possibly on some Vietnamese families bookshelf. Haha.

Because I am such a wimp at everything Emma calls me the scared squirrel, after the squirrel in Ice Age. Well on Saturday I became the Sabre Tooth Tiger! I, Katie Davey, went kayaking! Yes, I really did, around Cat Ba Island! Can you believe it!?!!? At first I was absolutely s***ting myself and really didn't want to do it. They were 2 person kayaks so I was at front and Emma was sat behind me. Once we actually got going I realised it wasn't as bad as I thought and I was actually loving it. Until the first of 3 scary moments happened. We hit a boat!!! I though we were going to topple and die, but we handled the situation great and managed to get away unhurt and alive. Then came the 2nd scary moment, and also the worst. We were heading towards this floating hut and we couldn't get away as the winds were so heavy. There were 2 extremely scary vicious dogs going mental at us with the biggest scariest teeth ever. We thought they were gonna jump and maul us to death, Emma was there ready to hit them away while I tried to push us away from them. Even Emma, who is not scared of dogs absolutely s*** herself. The kayak behind us was even scared for us and was shouting at the dogs. After that experience, Kayaking didn't seem so scary after all. Then the 3rd scary moment was when we were out at sea and it started to rain, we were going all over the place and rocking like crazy. We just paddled like crazy and managed to get to this secluded beach where we were the only 10 people. It was so gorgeous and I was gutted I didn't have my camera to take photos. By the time we got back to dry land my arms were in agony. We had been out for 3 hours and I don't think I have ever used my arm muscles so much in my life.

It is now Monday and we are about to leave Hanoi to head off towards Loas. Met the new tour group last night. It's Me, Emma, an English guy and 2 American girls. They seem like a nice bunch and the new tour leader is really nice. Not like the tour leader in Vietnam, he was an absolute dickhead. He most defiantly got rubbish feedback from me. Bring back Sunny!!!

Just to let you know, all photos are uploaded now for Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City, Finally! Will try over the next week to get the Vietnam photos on as well.

Till I write again, muchas love.

Katie xxx