Time for the fourth instalment of my travels....

After a beautiful 26 hour bus ride and the most inefficient border control I have ever seen, I made it to Hanoi, Vietnam! I checked myself into an awesome hostel and had a cheeky 16 hour hibernation as tubing and buses rendered me worse than useless and speech was actually proving a struggle!

Once fully recovered, I ventured out and I sampled the real Vietnam, well Hanoi anyway....calling it a culture shock is a huge understatement. I was literally chased down the street by lighter and pineapple salesman/woman, crossing roads is actually easier blindfolded as you just have to go for it or you would never get anywhere, it is a little daunting standing in the middle of a four lane road beig engulfed by countless bikes! I'm pretty sure the traffic behind you has the right-of-way on the road as if someone beeps you are expected to get out of their way.

I did however manage to explore the old city, walking round the lake in the city centre, which was awesome. I visited a temple solely dedicated to turtles and also Hoa Lo prison which was eye opening, I would now go as far as to say I know something about the Vietnam war, well more than what I learned from Forest Gump anyway.

I then headed to Cat Ba island, the biggest island in Halong Bay, I found the scousers I met from the slow boat into Laos for a night out and then Dale joined me a day later having bottled the bus and deciding to fly to Hanoi, in hindsight probably the wiser choice. He picked up two new travelling companions; a half welsh, half Australian student who is at Liverpool uni named Cai....don't ask. And a 60 year old Frenchman named evoo who is currently cycling around Asia following his triple heart bypass 5 years ago, interesting doesn't seem to do the man justice.

Cai, Dale and I spent the next few days relaxing, checking out the beaches (the first of my trip so far!), drinking (the champions league final was a pretty epic night), exploring the island on scooters (awesome!) and going for post night out swims (the phosphorescence in the water were mind blowing when inebriated!) before booking our tour of Halong Bay.

The Bay and it's neighbours were explored by 5 of us on our own luxury boat due to a booking error. I was speechless at the scenery I happened to find myself in and we spent the next two days sea kayaking through ridiculously cool caves into spectacular coves each better than the one before, jumping off the top of the boat and just generally chilling out soaking up the surroundings. The floating villages were obscure to say the least, they all seemed to own dogs?!?

Having returned from Cat Ba to Hanoi to continue the adventure south we decided to sign off in style with a night out that I feel deserves a small part of this blog dedicating to it...

It started with an all you can eat/drink buffet so a team of us carved a sizeable hole in nam's pizza, pasta and sangria supplies! This then led to drinking games with sangria the preferred beverage of choice. Leaving the hostel was when the evening plunged into randomness....a police raid led us to leave our first destination, on route to the next I was pretty strongly sexually violated by a Vietnamese prostitute pushing 50, i am pleased to announce all my pace hasn't left me as i got away reletivey unscathed. We then proceeded to get kicked out of a club I had strong suspicions was a gay bar, due to their being only one female in it and some very friendly boys, the Irish guy who was to blame for us getting kicked out did us a favour. When we found a bar/club without illegal or homosexual ties we got our dance on. Those who have seen me dance will know that this isn't as mundane as it sounds and the evening culminated in a group dance off, finished by yours truley getting a round of applaus from competitors, spectators and even some staff as I stormed to victory. I broke out my A-game with a cheeky front flip, forward role and even the lawnmower (borrowed from the Ben Spencer Dance Archive, cheers Benjamin, you taught me everything I know!)

Apologies if the last paragraph has shocked anyone, it doesn't seem too dissimilar to most of the nights I have had out here to be honest. I seem to be followed around by irratic yet brilliant events and and excursions that I wouldn't change for a second!

I've also had some interesting times on my anti-malerials, don't need to take them currently but they gave me some pretty intense dreams that seemed to merge my concious and unconscious to the point of me questioning weather I was a space cadet and had completely lost it, discussing such things with other travellers however put this issue to bed, all of whom had experienced similar funny turns. This led to ne quite enjoying them in the end.

Currently on the bus with Dale and Cai, me and Cai equipped with HAMMOCKS, the best purchase i have ever made, It was a flippant however and I hope I don't need the £2.80 it cost later on in my travels!

Next on the agenda is Hue, again, I'd love to give you a little insight into what it will be like but I have no idea what to expect.

I am still relatively healthy and enjoying this experience more than I describe. Thanks for tuning in again, hope you're all well.

Luke. X