Hiiiiiiiii everyone,

We could act like weve been thinking carefully about our final experiences in Vietnam which took cafeful consideration before we put pen to paper on this one, but the truth is weve been having a blast over in Thailand and so were only just getting around to it here.... sorry about that that (but not really :P).

So we finised the final lef of our Vietname tour over in Hanoi, (some places its written Ha Noi, others its Hanoi...?!) which is the second largest city located in the north of the country, and probably most famous because of its close location to the now modern wonder of the world, Halong Bay (yes we went and yes it was amazing!). The far north is much the same as the south, with the only exception we found being once we got into the city there were far more scooters on the roads than even down in Ho Chi Minh... our dodgeball skills got tested to the max on these streets thats for sure!

Hanoi is abother sprawling large city, and we have 4 nights 3 days there to get as much out of it as possible. We stayed in the ancient town side, which basically means very compact streets with very small and old buildings just bursting with lights, colours, sounds and smells. Add to the thousands of bikes using every tight space to get around that you can imagine, and a worn but slightly charming note (including the high up flats with hanging washing and all sorts of other things)... and youll get a feel for our end of town. We did venture out of course and found both the embassy streets (which also included the Ho Chi Minh mossolium) which were sprawling, wide and very posh, as well as the more stylish end of town with very expensive restaurants (we definitely didnt stand and stare and the food menus with total envy on our little budget...) and beautiful looking shops and hotels.

Hanoi was a very different experience to the quietness of Da Nang, and almost had a more relaxed and less hussled feel about Ho Chi Minh, but was very similar in a lot of ways. We were also near a great lake (cannot remember the name for the life of me) which at night was banked by beautiful lights, which gave it a much more open feel when we walked around.

Wel keep this one quick as we are keen to get on a share our Thailand experiences with you all, so here are some of the best bits from the 3 days we were in this charming, business and beautiful city:

- Ho Chi Minh mossolium and Embassy streets: This place is slightly north of the ancient town, with huge embassy 'homes' which we think resemble the style you would find those buildings in back in their country of ownership. The mossolium (which i misread as museum much to Bruces delight...) was stunning, although you can't cross the yellow line for photos..... we definitely did and got whilsted away! We also saw the presidents palace which is essentially a giant yellow mansion. They love the colour yellow in this country.

- Ancient Town: so the first thing we did when we arrived was get out and get some food. We managed not to get hit by the endless bikes beeping their way around, and kind of circled through and around the ancient town. Beautiful if not slightly dated old buildings all converted into some form of shop, restaurant or hotel. Less people sat out on the streets (because they would simply get run over) but very cool to just walk through it all and take it all in.

- Luke and Lucy & The night markets: We met Bruces good friends Luke and Lucy who were passing through on their own adventure, and spent the evening catching up with them, checking out Lukes incredible art, and then wondering around the HUGE night market around ancient town. BBQ food galore and plenty of interesting things to buy if you wanted to... far too many selfie stick shops for our liking thought :/

- Food & Drink: ok, so we talk about this alot, i know, but seriously... eating dinner for 2 with drinks for £7... and incredible Vietnamese dinner at that, it cannot be beaten. The food places we found here were unebelievably reasonable and so so damn tasty: noodles, rice, salads, pho, meat, fish, vegetables, street fruit (amazing), and of course... Oreos for 50p... you really cant go wrong in finding wonderful food and very reasonable prices. Our budget really loved this place!

- Halong Bay!!!; Ok, so we both agreed that this really is a wonder, and that is definitely merits its place as one of the new 8 wonders of the world. Problem was that we were both sleep deprived and it is a 6 hour round trip from Hanoi.. so queue the sarcasm and many many laughs at some of the rocks that are called chickens (they are just bloody rocks), and at the multi coloured lighting in the cave we went in.... but it was all in jest given where we were! Halong bay is made up of 2000 seperate islands, leaping out of the turqoise waters and seemingly standing there agains gravity... they really are stunning. They were formed due to the continental crust uplifting (they used to be under water) and this caused large chunks to break apart, and thus Halong bay was born. Our trip took us to a fishermans village, on a lovely bamboo boat ride with the boat steerer guy singing his heart out (badly) and into some beautiful caves. It was a wonderful experience, and we really got a chance to appreciate the isolation of a place like this... and to respect the 500 or so natives that still live within the islands themselves. It is definitely worth a day trip here if ever your in town!

All in all, we can safely say that Vietname truly delivered against our expectations... different, colourful, loud, charming, ancient, cheap, fun and above all a coutry that still shows off much of its roots and sticks to much of its traditions whilst catering for the ever expanding tourism it received. We would definitely (and i will be!) return one day.

Next stop Thailand!

Sending back lots of well wishes and warmth to you, and it wont be long until we are back home and annoying you with even more of our stories!

Big love

Bruce and Ash

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