Hello!

Our journey from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City was uncomfortable to say the least! We were picked up from our hotel in an air conditioned mini van, which was lovely until another spanish couple jumped in the front and decided to turn all the blowers on themselves leaving us to sweat out. We were then dropped in the middle of nowhere and walked over to a small shack which was Cambodian border control, before lugging our bags half a kilometre to Vietnamese border control. Then into a car to the bus station, then a motorbike to town, then to find out its liberation day and the hotels are pretty much full in Ha Tien (where we planned to spend a few days) then back on the bike to the bus station. Eight hours sitting in the bus station, then an overnight journey to Ho Chi Minh on an uncomfortable bus where everyone fully reclined their chairs meaning that you could not even get out of your seat, or move, at all. People sitting in the aisles, people snoring, people talking annoyingly loudly on the phone, the driver playing cheesy vietnamese music, bumps in the road every 5 minutes. Oh the joys of cheap travel.

Luckily we somehow managed to sleep and arrivd in Ho Chi Minh at 4am and managed to find a hotel, after a confusing conversation about whether or not they would charge us for that night because we had arrived early. The hotel owner was actually very nice and 9$ a night for an air con room suited us. By this point we were absolutely knackered but obviously had our priorities right, and headed out for baguettes. After a few hours sleep we walked around the city, had some rice porridge and headed for the cheap beer stools which are famous in vietnam. 10P for a glass of beer!! After a few we went back to bed in some glorious air-con! Vietnam is by far the sweatiest country we've been to, with our pits persperating profusely. The next day we visted the war museums of the Vietnam war, mostly aimed at atrocities comitted by the Americans, walked around the markets and ate weird food. That night we met some friends we went to school with, James and Liz, and had more cheap beers! It was a good evening and not too late because we had a 12 hour bus to catch to the wonderful Nha Trang!

The sleeper bus-this is a bus designed for midgets. Apparently, it allows people to fully recline and have a bed instead of a chair for overnight journeys. However the beds are no longer than five feet and half a foot wide; the legs are unable to move. Luckily, we discovered the back seats leg room goes into the walk ways of the bus and have unlimited leg room so we stuck to these when we could.

Nha trang- Russian beach party central and like the rest of Vietnam, unbareably hot. We arrived at 7am after a slightly more comfortable bus journey than the one to Ho Chi Minh. We grabbed a hotel and headed for breakfast, a lovely noodle soup for 80p. Walking back to the hotel at 8am we were sweating massively as it was already uncomfortably hot. We had a nap and went out to explore the blisteringly hot Nha Trang. That night we went out to get some fish and pork and rice and then checked out the local bars where we nabbed ourselves a job in one of the bars, Oasis, and so we became "promoters" basically we hand out flyers and get free food and alcohol. So we turned up the next day and couldnt believe our luck when they told us to just pick anything that we wanted from the menu. We have never been so excited for a burger and coke ever. It wasnt the best burger but free food always tastes good! So we took our flyers and handed them out at the beach (took them back to our hotel room and left them there and went for a sunbathe)

We went back that night for more free food and spent our first night handing out flyers. It was kind of boring but there were three other guys working two english girls and a kiwi so it wasnt too bad. We ended up spending ten days in Nha Trang working at Oasis and we ended up having a lot of fun. The kiwi guy left after two days and one of the English girls didnt really ever turn up again but Miriam worked with us and we had some wicked nights out, taking full advantadge of the free Oasis buckets until the end of our shift at 12/1 and then heading to Why Not bar and once or twice, the sailing club. Most of the staff at Oasis were great and working at Oasis was great fun (apart from between 7pm and 10pm where it was just really boring) Max also got fat eating an unhealthy amount of free pizzas which were pretty big! (This did not stop him having a naked swim in the sea one evening). We met so many fun people (apart from the Russians and Americans!) and we were sad to leave Miriam and Bi at the end of it. We hope we will be back to see these guys again soon!!

So after a fantastic week in Nha Trang sunbathing, eating free food, drinking and dancing and trying to do as little work as possible we caught our next night bus to Hoi An. Hoi An was an old trading town full of beautiful French/Chinese style buildings set along the river. Despite the ridiculously sweaty heat we spent the first day walking around the old buildings and heading to the market for some Vietnamese pancakes and Cao Lau (a local speciality of pork, noodles and wontons) which were absoloutely delicous. Certainly a lot better than Oasis food! We only managed to explore a little bit further after this before the heat became too much and we had to stop for an ice coffee and a coconut shake by the river. Not too bad as Hoi An is a lovely scenic town to sit and look at.

The next day we explored the Japanese friendship bridge, which has a monkey and a dog statue each side to symbolise the year the bridge was finished and started in. We are not sure why it took them so long as the bridge is tiny! We also had a look around the old trading houses and shops and walked along the streets which were all decorated with chinese laterns. We thought it would be rude not to go for more 10p beers that night after grabbing some of the yummiest chicken and rice ever. (It may sound boring but it was seriously good!) Although Max enjoyed the innard soup a lot more than Hayley did.

We decided we needed a bit of relaxation before we headed on to our next stop Hue, so we spent our last day relaxing by our hotel pool. Although it was inside it was nice to chill out away from the heat for a bit. Besides, all this beer drinking was exhausting! So after a hard day by the pool we grabbed some white rose, another local speciatlity of shrimp dumplings and some barbequed pork noodles, before some more Bia Hoi (fresh beer). mmmmm.

An amazing first half to vietnam, meeting the most fantastic people ( especially Miriam and Bi!) and eating more cool food.

Next stop. Hue, pronounced YEW-WAY