To escape our long, long stay in Hanoi, waiting endlessly for the visas for SK, and to cut our dangerous cycle of many trips to Highland Coffee and our new caffeine and cake lifestyle, we went on a trip to Halong Bay. Something Sean has wanted to do ever since 'Tomorrow Never Dies' and ever believing he is in fact 007 in another life, we took a day trip on the boat, and decided to wing it ourselves for the night and stay over in the city. The boat trip itself...

Our first few days in Hanoi were not the most peaceful to say the least. The bus here was not as peaceful as the first bus to Hoi An, and we had about 3 hours sleep between us before arriving at 7am. In the rain. With our heaving bags and suitcase. The hotel we had booked wasn't far, so we walked and found it easily. They have no record of our booking. Of course, we have booked it for next week by accident. Luckily they had room for us anyway and are lovely, ...

Hoi An = the land of SHOPPING And so, Laura was very very happy here. The End. We were put in the chairs in the front of the sleeping bus, which are a foot shorter than all the other beds, and is extra tricky when you are at least a foot taller than everyone else on the bus. Crunch time. We did get some sleep though, which was good, and we were helped at the service stations by our Vietnamese Mum who couldn't speak English but wanted to feed us up, even when...

Our second half of the long week in Saigon was not much more successful than the first.... Sean came down with the stomach bug I had earlier in the week, so a few more days in bed in the room with really rubbish films. I never ever need to see 'The One' with Jet Li and Jason Statham, 'Braveheart' - so factually inaccurate it's starting to annoy even me now, 'The Switch' with Jennifer Aniston - the premise of this film is beyond ludicrous. We did however manage...

We made it eventually across the border after our panicked rush here through PP from the paradise beaches of Sihanoukville. Rushed here to get to DHL and the South Korean embassy on time.....on Chinese New Year when the city pretty much shuts down. So the embassy is closed all week, and we spend every day checking at DHL to find out on Friday, that it's also closed until Monday. Time well spent then. Tori and Tyler caught up with us here from the beaches, and ...