I continued my travelling northwards through Vietnam. The travel throught Vietnam will be relatively rushed as my Visa is only for 2 weeks and there is a lot to see so unfortunately had to skip a few areas that I wanted to see. In Vietnam there are many overnight buses which helps with the time schedule although you can't always get much sleep. The travel is better than Laos & Cambodia but it's hard to get sleep when the drivers constantly honk the horns. There also tends to be a regular break at 1 AM, where the lights are all turned on & Karaoke goes on the t.v. Also, being tall in Vietnam is not always an advantage for the sleeper buses as some of the beds are sometimes a little too short.....but it's better than the seats & saves time!

Nha Trang: It was time for a bit more beaching as I had just finished doing a lot of other things in Asia & Vietnam is well known for its beaches so we stopped off in Nha Trang. The beach here was gorgeous and we went swimming a few times. There was a lot to do here so I spent a few days. I did a boat tour (booze cruies) of 4 different islands and we met a lot of great people on this tour. While on one of the islands, Angela & I went paragliding to have a great view of the water & islands. Angela quickly learnt that you need to run to get going so you don't get dragged along the shore & I later learnt to get onto the seajet quickly & hang on tight so you don't go flying off the back of it...oops! The paragliding was an amazing view & I'm sure a great preparation for when I plan on doing skydiving in Australia or New Zealand. I also took some windsurfing lessons which was great but they make it look much easier than it is.

Hoi An: This was a great little town. It had a gorgeous quiet beach and lots of nice small shops with great souvenirs. The town is filled with tailor shops side by side on every single street. I took advantage of the cheap prices and had some clothes custom made....they're great!! The old town was great & people were extremely friendly here. I rented a bike to go around the city & wandered over to some of the less touristic areas. These are the places I've tried to get to on various occasions rather than staying in the tourist zones to meet the real locals. I met a bunch of young kids that stopped to talk to me in their minimal english & talked to a few other locals that I came across but there's much less english as soon as you leave the touristic hub. Even though communication is minimal, they still try really hard to have a conversation with you and are great to spend some time with.

Ninh Binh: This is a less touristic area that I had heard from other travellers was worth a visit. I went over to this area with Emily & Tracey, 2 american girls I met in Nha Trang. We hired motorbike drivers & went around the countryside on the backs of the motorbikes & later went to Tam Coc river where we did a boat tour through some caves. This was very relaxing & it was a great way to see some of Vietnam.