So, another few weeks have gone by and it's definitely been a while since I've written anything, but most of last week was spent at the orphanage so not too much to report... though I'm sure it'll still take me the usual few hours to write this as once I get going I do seem to ramble on a bit!!

After the last blog, myself, Jade and our friend Els (who's another English girl who started volunteering at the same time as us, and was travelling on her own for the first time to Vietnam and then Australia before starting her degree at Westminster) really made the most of our remaining time in the hotel that weekend, and we met up with some of the other volunteers for a great meal out ( I had chicken with lemon grass and chilli, delicious!), followed by what should have been just a few drinks at a 'bia hoi' (cheap roadside, and I mean literally roadside, drinking hole where draft beer costs about 10p), a bar called Top Pub and a gay friendly club on the river called Solace, but we ended up having a few too many BOGOF cocktails and dancing the night away!!Was a bit of a joint celebration though, as the danish girl Ida was leaving after having been in Hanoi for 6 weeks Jade's birthday was on the Monday so it was fun to let our hair down a bit, especially as we got to recover the next day in the air-conditioned comfort of our little hotel room for three!!On Sunday afternoon after a loooong lie-in and draining the very last drops of good sleep before heading back to the hot volunteer house, we met up with the others again to see Sex and the City 2 at the cinema, which had been the original plan before we even got to Hanoi as a sort of birthday treat for Jade. It was a great few hours of escapism and frippery, but in my opinion a bit of a step too far as there was not even a hint of plot development, and some very bizzarre twists- especially Liza Minnelli doing a performance of Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' in it!!! And so after that, with pretty heavy hearts we got the taxi back to the volunteer house and settled in for yet another week of sweaty, sleepless nights...

The rest of the week went by in a bit of a flash really, what with the routine of getting up at 6.45am to get the two buses to get to the orphanage at 8.30am every day, playing with the kids for a few hours, having a long lunch and then playing some more in the afternoon- or holding sleeping babies while becoming more and more sweat-soaked!!Jade's actual birthday wasn't too eventful, it was supposed to be the International Culture Night whereby all the different nationalities of volunteers would cook something from their home countries and tell the rest of the group a bit about it, but because of Tung, the Vietnamese co-ordinator, being so laid-back to the point of laziness, there was a bit of a misunderstanding as he gave all the food money to the french guys who didn't realise that it had to be shared out and spent it all, so we didn't have anything to buy food with except out of our own pockets, and no real time to organise anything, and there was an issue as to whether there would even be enough food to go around for dinner as with about 20 people in the house, it would be pretty complicated to cook for us all. As usual, as we were struggling to organise things ourselves, Tung was nowhere to be seen as he was asleep upstairs (!), but after a few strong words from Jade and Stephanie, a lovely lady from HK who actually was volunteering during her time off from work as a social worker (what a saint!), it was explained to Tung that he had to take responsiblity for telling us what was expected of us, so hopefully he'll know for future groups!!In the end it wasn't so bad, as the french guys made us french toast and we had some french wine, a couple of new guys from Indonesia arrived that day and had made a yummy bean soup, Mi Re and Seong the Koreans made us spicy noodles from their own stock of Korean food, and Stephanie brought chinese dessert with her from home (mmmm...!!), which consisted of doughy rice balls, bean curd soup and a syrup to go with, mmm!!She'd also brought some traditional chinese silk dress, sweets, Hong Kong money and some of the little red money wallets they get given at Lunar New Year, so she really made the effort to show everyone a bit of chinese culture which was lovely. We were a bit crap and hadn't done anything, or been able to bring anything from home, but I certainly enjoyed seeing (and tasting!) everyone else's efforts.

On the Wednesday afternoon, we had some time off from the orphanage so we could meet up with the Youth House guys and a local volunteer, Hao, who took us to the Temple of Literature, one of the main sightseeing places in Hanoi. Unfortunately he had never actually been there himself so he wasn't able to add too much local flavour, but it was nice to wonder round the various courtyards and buildings of what used to be a University, and see the interesting looking stone steles mounted on stone turtles, that even today students wanting luck in exams come to the Temple to rub!Els was really suffering from heat and tiredness that day though, so by the time we'd finished walking round and were heading to the Old Quarter for some of us to book the trip to Halong Bay, the three of us ended up getting a taxi, where we got severely ripped off by the guy as his meter ran too fast, which was really irritating but I think we learnt our lesson as we should have got out of the car when we realised!!We managed to book the Halong Bay trip for $23 each ( a discount of $4 from the original price thanks to Jade's clever haggling skills!) for myself, Jade, Sylvain, Manon,Anne-Lore, Claire, Marie, Claire (the french guys) and Mi Re (the Korean girl), then headed to see Shrek 4 in 3d!!Another couple of hours of escapism and it was actually quite funny for a fourth film, again it was nice to be in a/c comfort and away from the hot house in the evening. We got some dinner a street kitchen, then headed back to the house for another hot,restless night. On Thursday, the orphanage was pretty stressful as there was a power cut, and so the one piddly little fan in the kids' play room area was of course not working, and we had to de-camp outside where it was slightly (though not much) cooler. Els was feeling really unwell that morning so she didn't come in until later, but it was probably a good thing for her as even the house would have been cooler than the fan-less orphanage!! That day was also a bit weird as the nannies and nuns brought all the children out to sit on rugs, including all of the very tiny babies (including one which was minute, and looked extremely premature and unwell), as someone had made a donation of 15million Dong (about 500 pounds) to the Pagoda, and so the presentation of the money was being used as a bit of a photo op. It was quite hard to watch as all of the kids and babies were just sitting languidly in the heat as lots of photos were being taken, and the head nun had the tiny premature baby in her arms which probably should have been in a hospital instead of being paraded about in the heat of the day, but we just had to stand by as we didn't really know or understand what was going on, and it wasn't our place to say anything either. The kids got given cartons of milk though, which they don't usually have, so that was nice. The orphanage was pretty hard going, maybe more so than the Youth House as a lot of the children are just babies or toddlers, and it's difficult to accept that they will spend their whole lives in this place where they don't get washed very often, and their nannies sometimes hit them. It makes me realise how unfair the world can be, but I also hope that even our small efforts to help out, and give them some much needed affection and attention have made a difference. I certainly don't judge the nuns, as it's far better for the children to be with them than on the streets, but it's not nice to see the reality of it I guess.

On Thursday evening, we went out for our final meal together with the rest of the volunteers, though Jade, Els and I weren't feeling much up to it and were joking that we'd been really pissed off it we were just going to some street kitchen that did the usual fried noodles and noodles soup as there was one just down the road from us, instead of a bus trip into town!!In fact, Tung brought us to a street kitchen near the bus station where not only were we literally eating on the pavement as the place didn't have an inside, but we cooked our own food!!We had a little burner and a really hot pan spitting with oil between 3 or 4 people, and plates of marinated meat and vegetables to put on to fry and eat with gigantic crusty rolls. the food was actually really delicious, but all the motorbike fumes, spitting oil and raw meat everywhere made for a bit of an extreme eating experience!!The best bit of the night had to be when we asked Tung what the meat was, as there was one darker one (beef), and a lighter, more fatter looking one on the plate- and he'd been joking with us since we arrived about eating dog meat so we wanted to make sure we weren't in for a nasty shock!!When asked, he replied with a completely straight face, 'oh, it's boob'- to which we all burst out laughing!!!Tung then had to clarify, 'you know, it's the boob of the goose?!', of course, goose breast!!I haven't laughed so much in ages, well unless you count the other day when Jade's towel got caught in the fan and she accidentally revealed her rather pallid behind to me and Els!!

So, over the past two weeks there have been quite a few lows, but we've still managed to laugh through it and get on with things. I definitely wouldn't volunteer with Real Gap or SJ Vietnam again as the former's lack of involvment and the latter's lack of organisation was quite shocking, but we did meet some absolutely amazing people, many of whom I hope to keep in touch with. It was pretty sad seeing the kids for the last time on the Friday, but because we were only there for a few weeks there was no real point in goodbyes or getting upset, as soon they'll have new people to play with and crawl all over!!It was the Pagoda volunteer co-ordinator Leah's last day though too after she'd been working there for four months, which was pretty hard for her, but they'd brought the kids loads of fruit and they did a bit of face-painting so that made the day a little bit more special. Jade, Els and I all headed straight to a hotel again, Little Hanoi, after we'd finished for the day, and had a really lovely evening of pampering (I had a pedicure and a hair cut for less than $10, bargain!), eating (we went out for dinner in the restaurant we'd gone to the weekend before, followed by frozen yoghurt at Yokool) and SLEEPING!!!!I don't think I will ever take air-conditioning for granted ever again, the person who invented it should be a Nobel Prize Winner!

The next day, bright and early at 8am Jade and I said goodbye to Els (she was getting a flight to HCMC, staying there a few days on her own then heading to meet friends in Oz so couldn't come to Halong Bay with us, but really hope we can catch up once we're all back in the UK, she's a wee gem!) and got picked up by minibus to go to Halong Bay. The others got on the bus soon enough, making it a very tight squeeze as there were even fold out seats in the aisles, and we snuggled in for the bumpy 3 hour ride to Halong City. Once there, we got on board our boat and were served lunch. By this stage, I was feeling pretty ill as I'd gone to bed feeling a bit under the weather and woken up feeling nauseous and dizzy, but just put it down to being a bit tired, though I couldn't eat much of my lunch. Afterwards, we stopped off on an island to visit a series of rather garishly lit caves- it was so humid and we had to climb up to see them so we were all literally dripping with sweat when we were walking around them, nice!The tour guide kept pointing out stalactites and stalagmites that were supposed to look like things, in general rude things such as a boob and 'the part that only men have' as he laughingly put it, before we got back on the boat with the promise of a bit of swimming the next time we stopped. Then we were informed when we stopped at a floating fishing village that we had to pay extra if we wanted to see the fishing village by a smaller boat and go swimming in the caves, and as we were told we would be able to swim as part of our tour package, we waited on board for some others to go as we weren't about to pay for it!It was quite funny as as soon as the boat was docked, loads of ladies came up to it in rowing boats stocked with fruit, biscuits,water and beer trying to sell us things, a pretty comical sight!Jade bought a pineapple, and the lady skillfully balanced her boat while cutting the pineapple up at the same time!Later on, after we'd moved on again further into the bay, we stopped for some Kayaking but the guide told us again we weren't allowed to swim as the water was dirty. A bit fed up of being told no to everything, we all got in our kayaks and paddled rounded behind one of the larger rock formations before teethering them up and jumping in the delightfully warm waters for a little bit of a paddle!!It was so refreshing after the heat and sweat of the day, but everyone got cut on the rocks under the water, and getting back into the kayak was easier said than done from the water!!I was starting to feel really miserable as well, as I'd push the sickness to the back of my mind but my throat and head were really hurting, and after I'd had a shower I realised I was burning up with a temperature. Unforunately I missed out on pretty much all of the rest of the fun to be had (including dinner and jumping off the side of the boat, as well as more swimming) as I was feeling terrible so spent the rest of the night in our tiny, stuffy cabin down below deck. The staff were really horrible too, as Jade had asked if we could pay to turn our air conditioning unit on (we had one in our room, but our tour didn't include it) as that was the only thing she could really do to make me feel any better, but the guy shouted at her and got up in her face, telling her that it wasn't included, then charging us a whopping $15 for it ($7 less than the whole tour per person!). When it was on, the air conditioning leaked all over my pillow and side of the double bed we were sharing, but the guy refused to give us our money back and 'fixed' the problem by pushing the bed forward and putting a bowl under the leak, and he also refused to give me a dry pillow!!I was pretty upset and frustrated by the whole thing, and by the chills and aches and pains that meant I couldn't get any rest. I probably got about an hour, if that, of sleep the whole night so I was pretty miserable!!thankfully, my temperature had gone away by the morning and so had the aches and pains, though it left me feeling really tired and drained- not what I needed when we were getting the night train to Sapa that evening!

We spent the Sunday morning just cruising back through the bay in the boat, and I managed to get a bit of sleep above deck as they had unceremoniously waked us up at 6am and made us check out of our rooms by 7.30am for no apparent reason, so I didn't even had my bed to lay in for a few more hours!!!We got a quick lunch in Halong City (included in the tour, though my appetite had completely gone) then made the drive back to Hanoi, arriving at about 4.30 when we said goodbye to the other guys and made our way to the hotel we'd stayed in on the Friday night where our big bags were being held for us.Halong Bay is quite pretty, and when we were out on the sea with very few other boats around us it was peaceful too, but I think being sick, the horrible staff and the tour experience of being told what to do and when to do it tainted it for me quite a lot. It is a big tourist destination for both foreigners and Vietnamese, and although it is a Unesco World Heritage Site I think that if they aren't careful it will be ruined in a few years as there is a real saturation of tour groups, tour boats and even rubbish in the sea. Thankfully, our train wasn't until 9.50pm and the incredibly helpful lady at the desk let us get a shower and helped us book a taxi to the station, so we were able to relax hassle free for a few hours, which was definitely good for me!And also, after a weekend with the temperature in Hanoi apparently peaking to 43 degrees centrigrade (thankfully we were in Halong Bay on that day!), the storm finally broke, so we made our way rather soggily to the train station. The rain here is more a blessing than a curse though, as it means the temperatures drop from their unbearable levels for a few days, and the rain is weirdly enough quite warm unlike at home so it's not the horrible experience that we all usually dread!!After a bit of confusion over train tickets (the women we picked our tickets up from tried to get us to upgrade for 200,000 Dong as our tickets 'hadn't arrived', but we were having none of it!), we got on board and were pleasantly surprised. It was as nice, if not nicer than the chinese sleepers we'd been on, and while the hard sleeper mattress did live up to its' name, we got nice soft clean duvets and pillows, and I was able to get a surprisingly good amount of sleep (I think mainly because I was just so tired!) before we arrived in the town of Lao Cai at 6.30am(The border town we should of actually arrived into Vietnam from China), and caught a minibus to the misty mountain town of Sapa in the rain. We then had a glorious (and hard earned) day of doing quite literally nothing (except sleeping), and the weather is Sapa was amazing- we didn't even have a fan in our room but the temperature was spot on! We grabbed a simple dinner that evening and booked a two day trek with a homestay for the next night through our hotel.

Next day, rested and refreshed (and feeling nearly 100% better on my part), we were picked up at 9.30am by our guide, Chao, a girl belonging the the Black Hmong Tribe that live in and around Sapa, as well as some other very lovely Black Hmong ladies who were apparently going to follow us to tout their wares!There were 7 of us in the group altogether,me, Jade and guy from Dublin called Barry, an Italian lady living in Laos called Titziana, two Aussie girls and a German girl, and of course it was raining pretty heavily as we set off so I donned my very snazzy floral parka. After a bit of walking along the road, we walked down a side track, where we came to mud.LOTS of mud. And not the mud we get at home, but red, sticky clay-like mud that we all squelched and slid in, though the Hmong ladies were so funny and helpful, quite literally holding our hands (often we had two each, one holding either hand!) as we scrambled down the rocky and muddy terrain. It was so funny as I of course kept nearly falling and making silly 'ahhh!' and 'whoops!' sounds, but everytime I did they would just copy me and giggle, which made me giggle so we were all walking along giggle and sliding along the mud!!Eventually we made it to Lao Chai, where we had a lunch of instant noodle soup with omlette and some fruit, before heading off again to complete the rest of the trek. On the way, we passed by lots of little wooden houses with kids running about, Chao showed us some Indigo dye (which they dye all the colourful hemp clothing that they wear-and sell- with) being made, a loom for weaving hemp material and a stone thing for grinding rice that Jade had a go at. The countryside is quite like the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces in China, but maybe even a bit more vast, with massive mountain slopes coming down to luscious green valleys covered in rice terraces and dotted with tribal villages. We arrived in the little town of Ta Van,12km from where we started and where Jade, Barry and I would be staying with a local Red Dzao family as the others were only doing a day tour. We spent most of the afternoon just chilling out, and Jade and I went for a wee walk about, then we played cards all evening and shared a meal with Chao and the family who we were staying with- really yummy spring rolls, ginger chicken and a pork dish all cooked over an open fire, as well as copious amounts of home-brewed rice wine which the patriarch of the family kept plying us with from a slightly dodgy looking plastic bottle!I gave up after 3 shots not wanting to get sick again, but poor Barry ended up having about 5 shots of it I think!!We settled in for quite an early night with lights out around half 10, and while basic, we did have mattresses, pillows, blankets and a mossie net each as well as a western toilet to use in an outside cubicle!!Chao woke us up around 8.30, and the lady of the house made us lots of pancakes with bananas, honey, lime and sugar, then the three of us and Chao, along with some more younger girl helpers set off again for the day!!The climb on Wednesday was much harder than the day before, as although the mud had dried out a bit it was much slipper on this particular route, and we did uphill bits as well as downhill. Chao was also pretty relentless, as her little welly-booted feet moved so quickly and skillfully whereas we were all bumbling behind her trying to find non-slippy bits to put our feet on!We got to a big waterfall around mid morning for a well earned rest, and as that day we were only doing 6km we'd pretty much finished for the day. We took a short walk through a very overgrown bamboo forrest and down a really,really slippy bit to get to another village, where Chao and another girl climbed a tree to get what tasted like sour plums for us to try, then headed back down to a cafe type place for lunch- the same thing we'd had the day before!!!Then all there was left to do was climb another very steep hill, and we arrived at the pick up point for the bus back to Sapa!!Trek=done!

I think we both had a really good time in Sapa actually, and I definitely preferred the general feel of it to Halong Bay. Although it is still a major tourist destination, it is still more about the nature than pleasing the tourists, and although at first I was worried that the minority tribes are being exploited in some way, the tribes people we met all seem happy and pretty grateful to be able to work and sell their cloth and things to people, and I certainly felt they were encroached on by tourists a lot less than the minorities at the Dragon's Backbone, where you literally walk straight through their village to get to see the rice paddies. The homestay was a nice change from just hotels, and it was fun to meet and Irish guy- though I was shocked and horrified that he didn't know what champ was?!?! Anyway, that was yesterday, and last night we got the overnight train back to Hanoi. We somehow managed to get soft-sleepers, which weren't that soft but the cabin only has 4 people instead of 6 in it, and we shared with some Canadians who kept to themselves so we had quite a quiet night- though we arried in at 4.30 this morning, and had to wake the guy up at our hotel to let us in, whoops!! Chris arrived with us just after 10am, and in a few hours I'm going to head off to the airport to pick up Gary, I couldn't be more excited to see him after over three months being apart- absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder, and I'm really excited to get on the road again after being in Hanoi for the better part of 3 weeks, especially with him at my side.

This, as usual, has been a lot longer than I intended and I'm sure you're seeing spots with all this poorly written stuff to read, so I'm gonna head on now!!

Lots of love from Hanoi (again) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx