Thursday was spent wondering around district one, visiting my first Vietnamese supermarket -they pack the place with as much stuff as possible. This visit also confirmed that they do actually buy whitening lotion for their bodies. People want to be as pale as me (believe it or not) as it shows you are wealthy and not working on a farm or field all day. Only the poor have dark skin. And there's us westerners trying to get some colour. I met the English girls for lunch to say bye. They were off to travel through Thailand. I spent the afternoon sorting and then had some Pho before heading to sky bar to meet some of the lads from the hostel. We had a slight problem getting in as they wouldn't let Eva or I in without sandals or closed shoes. We were both wearing very smart dresses yet they refused to let us in as we had flip-flaps on! What's crazy is that they let a girl from our dorm in with muddy walking shoes, how does that work! However I had a genius idea- two of us went up to the bar with sandals whilst we left the other two girls downstairs wearing the flip flaps. Then I got a guy from my hostel to take our shoes down to them. He hid them under his shirt and headed down whilst Louise and I stood behind the bar bare foot avoiding the bouncers which involved walking around the circular bar a couple of times. But the plan worked and we were all able to enjoy the amazing view from the rooftop bar. Shame the cheapest drink was 170000 dong! I guess that's normal price back home £6 but when you can get it for about 30p on the street down the road its not good!! After that we went on down to the cheap drinks on the street. It's such a sociable area there you just end up chatting to everyone around you.. And Marc and Jon were there too. It ended up being a late night out and with just 3 hours sleep I had to get up and had a full day out on a tour visiting Cao Dai temple followed by the Cu Chi tunnels. Met a cool guy from Colombia so spent most of the day with him. He came along to dinner with the girls, Ed, Marc and Jon. We went to a cool restaurant and sat on the balcony on cushions and a mini table! It was cute. Hit the street bar once again, then a bar then danced all night in our own private bar playing all our favourite music via you tube! It was a good night all round even though I was ready for bed at 4pm! Lol.

Saturday was a sad day - the girls were going back home and the lads were moving on to Nha Trang. I was all alone apart from Ed who was still around for a bit. I spent the day catching up on sleep and watching The Hobbit at Bobby Brewers cafe- it's a really cool cafe with comfy sofas. You can order food and drink whilst watching the film which was free to watch as long as not bought something.

Sunday was fairly productive - I bought some shirts from the market (no bargaining required as I just said my friend bought their tops for 100,000 dong yesterday. They let me have them for that price, even though the price was 400,000 on the tag. I met up with the Vietnamese guy from Nha Trang and he took me to lunch at a popular local and showed me around some of the other sights in the district. In the afternoon I met up with an Irish girl who showed me around a disabled orphanage. It was so sad. These children had no life here. They each had beds with metal bars so they didn't fall out. The beds were lined up in rows in a big room. It felt like a prison. Most of them were just staring up at the ceiling not knowing what was going on. Some would register that you entered the room and would attempt to smile but that's about it. They were too disabled to walk, many of them had the thinnest legs they would probably break if they were to stand up on them. Others had massive heads so they couldn't even raise their head from the bed it was too heavy full of listed. The children would be in their bed all day and would get fed-That was their day. Sleep and food. So upsetting to see. Especially when i found out that most families throw their disabled kids out of the house because they think they have been cursed and they don't want to pass it on or be seen with a cursed child because they think they have done something bad to deserve this and will be frowned upon by others. Really sad. I strolled back to the hostel and had a skyping session before heading out for some dinner with 2 girls from my hostel then met Ed for drinks.

Next day was a sorting out day and now I'm here on a Mekong Delta 2 day tour to Phnom Penh. Mistake right there- should have just caught the bus! Never mind we live and learn! I will get there eventually. Gives me time to sleep, read, write and listen to my music. It's all good. The tour is essentially taking tourists to show them how some food is made which in all fairness is interesting, but then they try and get you to buy it all. The offer we have had today is buy 5 get 1free-wow what a bargain. Lol. Most people are taking the fast boat tomorrow but I chose the slow boat because it was cheaper. I may be regretting that decision by the end of this. I have spent most of the day on a bus so really should have jumped on direct bus to Cambodia which I think was only about 6 hours. But there is a group of us all just laughing about it right now. Our tour guide has done a very good job getting us all to buy stuff. He was explaining to us on the bus that we were unlucky if we booked the slow boat as opposed to the fast option the next day and that he didn't actually know what the slow boat people would be doing as it was a different company (even though we bought as a package deal). The next minute people are all giving him money to upgrade to the fast boat tomorrow. I am sticking with my slow boat! Then he starts saying the lunch we provide is very little and "you are big" so may want to buy a fish for lunch as well just 180,000 dong. And you had to pre-order it too so you couldn't even see how much they gave you before deciding. He's very good at his job in that respect but on the other hand we are rapidly loosing patience with his constant scamming!

So lets some up Vietnam:

Best food I think is going to have to be Cau Lau in Hoi An. Best view has got to be rice fields in Sapa mountains.

Best adventure is probably trying to find the waterfalls in Nha Trang and without doubt the easy rider from Dalat to Mui Ne.

Most scary moment has to be Louise being knocked over by a motorbike...and I would like to add the scary lady who wouldn't let go of Lotts in Hoi An when we went to get our bikes.

Saddest moment has to be seeing the children in the orphanage and seeing such young kids roaming the streets trying to sell you stuff in the early hours of the morning.

Longest unexpected journey has got to be the 21 hour journey from Cat Ba island to Hue.

Most Crazy night for sure is the night out with easy riders- rice wine, vodka, karaoke, cake and one big headache! I have loved Vietnam - the places have been great, I have met some really sweet Vietnamese people who are willing to spend time with you...without the scams and asking for money. I have loved the barbers that will cut hair in any random place on the side of the road, the men who use their motorbikes as beds in the daytime (I don't know how they don't fall off) or who decide to start plucking their beards using the wing mirror, the women who look like they are in their PJs all day (which I have just found out, they are actually PJ's... ok so I can't stop talking about Vietnam- it is a really cool place to visit for sure. Well byebye Vietnam, next up is Cambodia...

Ps. As I am just about to upload this blog I can now say that I loved the "slow boat"...it ended up being an air conditioned mini-van which was transporting our luggage and I even got dropped off at my hostel. It ended up being me and one other couple who took this route, and we were so happy we chose this. We even arrived before the "fast boat" which was 100 000 dong more. Gutting for them J

Also, we had to leave a couple behind at the Cambodian border as the girl had blank passport pages ripped out of her passport. She only noticed this happened once she had been given it back from the initial passport visa - so it was either the guy from the company or the visa people themselves who did this. Apparently people do this to cover up dodgy visas that they have in their passports so they cannot be questioned about their trip. So I have learnt my lesson not to give me passport to anyone, even to sort out a visa for me! We can't even trust organised companies. So I'm not sure what happened to them, if they managed to pay some money to get in, or if they had to return to Vietnam! OPS!

Lots of love xx