Hello!

Since we last updated the blog we've covered soooo much ground. After obtaining our Vietnamese visas we booked ourselves on what was to be Mike's first overnight sleeper train from Guangzhou to Nanning in China, a whopping 14 hour journey. I think he was secretly dreading it, understandably as the prospect of getting any sleep on a bed made for a tiny chinese person was next to none. However being on the top bunk out of three beds worked to our advantage as mike's long legs could dangle over the edge of the bed without being bumped into to by any small people! So the hours wittled by and we arrived at Nanning at around 6 o'clock in the morning.
Here we found ourselves in a part of china that was not at all used to the sight of two tall westerners and their new Japanese friend Saori, once we got used to the staring and our tired eyes started working we found a tour guide who managed to get us on a bus to the border that would take us straight to Hanoi in Vietnam. Whether or not we were more susceptable to being ripped off because we were tired we dont know but when we got to the bus station and were handed our tickets we found we'd been out done by about a tenner, whoops! Something we have definately become more aware of so now we bargain as much as we can. The scenery we got to see on the bus journey wAS incredible which made it more worthwhile.
We've been in Hanoi for two days in a lovely hotel we bargained down to 12 quid a night from about thirty!!!So now were sitting in our lovely room updating you on our adventures.
Hanoi is very busy, the traffic never stops and seeems to get even busier at night strangely. Its also even hotter than China and there are'nt many air conditioned places for us to hide here, Mike says he finds himself disgusting the amount he sweats here, I think its funny and so do all the Hanoians!
We've been very busy walking around taking in all the sights and smells, all the vendors are very persistent here and love gawping at mikes height. Its really cheap to eat and generally live, since Vietnam used to be a French colony theres a lot of influence on the food etc and we've been enjoying lovely croisannts and pan au choclat in the morning!
We saw the lovely temple of literature and have walked around the lake, often being caught out by ridiculously heavy downpours.
Leaving Hanoi tomorrow to head for Nha Trang on another overnight slepper this time a dreadful 26 hours so we'll be stocking up on lots of noodles and croisannts for the ride. Hoping to meet up with Mike's friend Will and from there head to Mui Ne further south with him and his brother.

We'll update agian soon with more tales and photos,
Lots of Love
Bec and Mike xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx