Hello Readers!

First off, well done Mum on selling the cooker, I have my fingers crossed for the sofa!

Well, as we suspected our journey from Luang Prabang (Laos) to Sapa (Vietnam) took a total of 4 days! This consisted of three 10 hour buses and a few remote villages. It was worth it though to experience the local transport in which 12 seaters take 30 + people and having to get on and off every 2 km to go through the mud! At one point the bus got stuck and we mucked in by pulling it out with a rope! Overall it was a fun journey with some breathtaking views.

Arriving at our first destination in Vietnam, Sapa, was an out of this world experience. It is a mountain town and as we were driving in it got very cold and we were literally driving through the clouds! We stayed on the top floor of a hotel and the view was mountains and valleys of farm land. The town itself was swarming with people from the local villages all dressed up in traditional costume and of course they all wanted us to buy something. One morning a group of girls followed us for about 2 hours chatting about where we were from and our families at home.

We did a one day trek which was fairly easy going through the moutains and rice paddies. There was a lovely lake that we sat by one afternoon and a very old lady from one of the villages approached us. She had no teeth and didn't speak a word of English, she played a musical instrument and we fell in love with her so ended up buying some local textiles!

After 3 days we hopped on a over night train to Hanoi (capital of Vietnam) and when we arrived at 4am it was raining and continued to do so for the next 48 hours! Needless to say we were unable to do much sight seeing, but did manage to pick up a Halloween costume (Harry Potter and the Devil Child, photos to follow) so had a good night! After a day of recovery we took a 3 day trip to Halong Bay. Luckily as we drove out of town the rain went away and we enjoyed a fantastic few days on a boat, doing kayaking through the amazing limestone mountains coming out of the sea. The trip included all our food and we ate like royalty for 3 days, it was brilliant!

We returned to Hanoi and thankfully the rain had stopped, so we went off to see the sights. We visited the Womens Museum, the old prison (where they kept John McCain locked up during the war, shame they let him out!) Ho Chi Minh Museum, Temple of Literature (no actual books, just the 1st University of Vietnam), Hoan Kiem Lake and of course a couple of temples. The traffic in Hanoi is in close competition with Delhi for the most deadly roads in the world. Everyone and thier dog owns a motorbike and I can't work out which side of the road you are supposed to drive on here! We have really enjoyed Hanoi (although the people could be friendlier).

Its our last day today and after some last minute bargins we will be flying to Bangkok tomorrow morning. The next update will probably be from Australia as we fly there on Monday! We are really excited, but will miss Asia (especially the temples!). Hope all is well at home, we celebrated the Obama win with some 8p beer by the way!!

Lots of love Lauren and Louise

xxx