Chào,

We began our Northern Vietnamese adventure in Hue, after a lovely short bus journey (only five hours!) Hue was the old Vietnamese Capital and featured a massive citadel and several pagodas. Althought naturally, we started our exploration with a bowl of noodle soup, the local variety Bun Bo Hue, served up by a nutty old lady who kept laughing to herself. We then had a walk along the river and had a little explore and a cheap beer.

The next day we had a full day, exploring the massive Citadel. It was a little bit like an English Castle with a moat around it and watch towers. Although the extortianate entry fee was distinctly Asian! We walked around the whole perimeter, stopping for some sugarcane juice along the way and a massive watermelon for 30p which Hayley devoured! We also got to witness a delightful Asian lady stop in our path and have a wee. Literally, right in front of us showing us EVERYTHING. It got too hot again so we walked back. Before walking back we tried to sort a ride to a tiger santuary and couldnt communicate well with the moto-taxi driver; it took us a while to realise he couldnt actually speak at all (he had no voice) and so we gave up, grabbed some cold beers and hit the air-con room to sleep and freeze.

Hanoi! A busy, hot and hungry capital. The bus ride was difficult as we broke down in the middle of no where and the aircon threw a strop and stopped working. The hotel we grabbed was okay, the free breakfast tempted us but the owner was a complete idiot. His loud foghorn voice was heard all over the hostel and all he cared about was selling us an over priced tour of Halong Bay. Honestly, I cant describe the feeling of being hasselled and shouted at by a chubby Vietnamese man at 6 in the morning after a 14 hour sweat box bus journey. To make things better we read online he was notoriously known for attacking tourists with a broom if they did not book tours through him. We dodged him the whole time we was there and he did not bother us much. The first day in Hanoi we walked around the Hoan Kiem lake, which is apparently home to a giant tortoise. We also checked out the massive market which was surrouned by so much food! We filled ourselves up with noodles, grilled fermented pork and crab spring rolls before deciding to wash it down with some weasel poo coffee! Yummy! The verdict on the weasel poo coffee? Well, it tasted like coffee. We had ours on ice with condensed milk, it was quite a rich and strong coffee, but nice. Although very strange to think that the coffee beans have been picked out of a weasel's poo!

Day 2 in Hanoi we explored the temple on the Hoan Kiem Lake, which featured a encased turtle, as the legend goes, its great grandfather took the sword of Emperor Le Loi and became known as the Golden Turtle. Despite the huge turtle on display, the temple is just a normal buddhist temple with lots of strange statues on display with gift offerings of tins of biscuits, which were strangely shortbreads. Who knew the Buddha liked shortbread!!

Next stop was an old merchants house which featured lots of old Vietnamese arts and crafts and the same layout of Merhcants years ago. Although it did feel like we just paid two dollars to look round a shop. Some of the sculptures were cool though and we saw an original squat toilet. Seriously, how do they still use these things?!

After yet more noodle soup for dinner and a good nights sleep we hopped on a bus to Halong City (which we managed not to book through our crazy hotel manager). When we arrived in Halong City it was absolutely pouring down, so we found a hotel and crashed out. After travelling for four months we seem to want to sleep a lot! We had a quick walk around the city but there wasnt really much there, apart from a bakery that sold yellow bread that max loved and ended up buying about six loaves over the two days we were there. Halong City was full of hotels and travel agents which was strange as there seemed to be nonone there at all really. During the evening there were dozens of streetfood stalls selling fresh seafood. The streets were lined with tables of fresh clams, mussels, sea snails squid and octopus. We decided to try some Octopus noodle soup which was absolutely delicous and Max had a noodle soup with some unidentifable ingredients but which was still nice.

We got up early the next day and walked abour 2km to the harbour where we paid 9$ for a tour of Halong bay. The same tours that were being sold for 35$ in Hanoi. Halong Bay was really impressive, it really is massive, there are just thousands and thousands of rock formations. you could probaby explore it for days. We visited one of the caves, a floating village and the famous rock formation that is one their money notes but we can't remember what it's called. It was a really good trip, the rock formations were fascinating, its incredible that they just naturally form there. Although it was really wet and rainy and this resulted in Hayley slipping down the stairs in front of everyone, resulting in a very sore bum!

We dragged our soggy selves the 2km back to the hotel and showered and went for dinner before sheltering from the rain with some cartoon network. The next day was back to Hanoi. Most of the day was spent travelling and when we arrived in Hanoi we headed for a different hotel to the one we had previously stayed in. We opted for a cheap hostel this time. 5$ each for a bed and breakfast. It was a lot nicer to stay somewhere without someone hastling you for a tour. Although there was a strange Vietnamese guy staying there who slept the whole time with a face mask on, making strange breathing noises and was constantly turning the air con and the lights off.

We deciced that seeing as we only had 3 more nights left in Vietnam we had to try as much weird food as we could. So over the next few days we ate Bun Oc (snail noodle soup), Mien Luon (Crunchy Fried Eel noodles) and Egg coffee. The Snail noodle soup was lovely although the snails tasted a little bit earthy, Max loved the eels and neither of us thought much of the Egg coffee. it was just like a normal coffee but more expensive and with foam on the top. Although the cafe was awesome, you had to walk through a shop and then someones living room to get to it and then walk up some stairs to a terrace with some wicked views over the city.

The second day we spent our whole time shopping, walking around the markets and the local shops. We picked up our souvenirs and both bought a snazzy backpack which both broke within about 5 minutes of using them. Oh, Asia. Our final full day we wandered around taking in the craziness of Hanoi, getting ice creams by the lake and Egg coffees on the terrace. While in the cafe we tried to count how long we could go without hearing someone beep. The longest time was a grand total of 9 seconds! There really is a crazy amount of traffic most of which are motorbikes. Everyone has a motorbike or a scooter. ALthough only a small fraction of people seem to have any idea of how to drive them apart from going in a straight line!!

We also went out to beer corner. A street corner with nothing but fresh beer stalls. While we were here, unbelievably we heard someone shouting, turned around and saw the DJ from Oasis bar in Nha Trang!! We sat down with him and his friend and found out he has quit Oasis and moved back to Hanoi. We drank with them and they ordered lots of food and were amusing themselves by constantly saying cheers and trying to get us to finish our beers. We also got talking to the people beside us - an irish/beligian expat and a Swedish girl and her Canadian boyfriend. They were all cool although the Vietnamese guys left suddenly and we went to leave later and tried to pay they had paid for everything! We couldnt believe they paid for all our drinks and left without saying anything! The expat guy then took us to a local bar and bought us drinks before the police came and shut the bar down. Apparently there is an unofficial curfew. So basically the police just come in at 11 and shut anyone down who doesnt give them bribe money. so we moved to another bar which was shut down again and then to another where we had to go round the back, up some stairs, down a corrider, through somones house, down some more stairs and into the bar where all the shutters were down. It was like a speakeasy! So we sat and drank martinis and ate chilli beef til the early hours where the expat guy paid for everything and we had a completely free night! Pretty lucky seeing as we had just lost our last cash card! Oops.

So next day, off to the airport. Back to Bangkok (to Max's extreme delight he loves it). Vietnam you have been an experienc!. Definitely a challenge at times but we have met some wicked people, especially in Nha Trang and eaten some of the best food! It was a brilliant country to end our Asian Adventure and will probably be back.

We are tired now and want Fiji but we need one more shot at Bangkok. BYE!