Had my first experience on an overnight bus from Hanoi to Dong Hoi a few days ago - learnt that I'm too big for Asia! It was a pretty uncomfortable 12hour ride as my legs didn't fit in the footwell so had to hag them over the edge in some poor Vietnamese person's face! The bus reminded me of the bus in Harry potter - swerving oncoming scooters, trucks and buses. I just shut my eyes and hoped for the best! We were dropped in the middle of nowhere at about 5.30am and were surrounded by motorbike taxi drivers haggling with us for fares. Firstly I'm not a fan of bikes and secondly even if it had my only choice I don't think I could have got me and my backpack on. We started walking in the direction of the bus station and luckily a taxi pulled up and took us to the Easy Tiger hostel in Phong Nha, a sleepy town on the river. We took a boat into Phong Nha cave 'll later that day - it was pretty awesome, especially when you hear the stories about how it was used during the war as a hospital and to store a mobile bridge to get supplies across the river during the night when the Americans wouldn't have seen the lorries crossing.

Early evening we hired bikes and cycled to the Mountain River cafe which is owned by the guy who discovered the world's biggest cave (in the local National Park). We had the most amazing coffee there! Heading back to the hostel we cycled past lots of kids who all wanted high fives or waves. One even cadged a lift on the back of Merve's bike!