Good morning Vietnam , i'm writing this after two days of celebration and preperation for the trip to Ancient Greece ( F**K OFF MOURINHO ) . I've managed to secure a cheeky little flight to Athens from Bangkok , allowing me to partake in the footballing genius that is the RAFALUTION .

After leaving the islands in Laos , and having a few more days in the old man prostitute capital of the world ( Vientiane is a s*** hole ) i headed off to the plain of jars in Ponsavon , it was an impressive place as nobody know's how they got there or why there are there . After a day there i tried to make it to Hanoi in Vietnam in time for the semi final . The direct tourist bus took 24 hours , which i thought was a little to long . So i took the public bus to the border which ended up being a gloryfied tuk tuk as there wasn't enough people to fill a bus , instead of taking 6 hours it took 11 , by which time the border was closed which meant spending anougher night in Laos . After crossing the border the bus should've taken 3 hours to Hanoi , that bus nolonger ran !!!! nice !!!!! So i had to spend 10 hours on the s***tiest bus in the world to Thang Hoa which because it took so long i missed the connection to Hanoi and had to spend another night somewhere i didn't want to be .

All was recovered however at around 4:30 am local time when big Dirk Kuyt spanked home the last penalty , to send us to Athens . Cue mental celebrations and a 2 day white russian bender ( The Big Lebowski would be proud ) . The bus to Hanoi was the scariest 4 hours of my life the driver was a nutter , with a 40 seat bus with nearly 80 people squashed into it ,  it was a miracle we made it !!!!!

Hanoi is the craziest city i've been to so far , the train tracks run through the main streets , a couple of feet in front of the shop's , the roads are 3 lanes of solid wall to wall scooters , the whole city seems to be on the street at the same time . I absolutly love this place .

Instead of spending a couple of months in Vietnam and Cambodia , Athens now beckons & the 23rd May draws me closer , a slight detour from the original plan will see the spam back in Europe , come on the MIGHTY REDS .

I'll only be in Vietnam for about a week now , which is a shame as 2 days of drinking White russians has only cost me about 5 quid . They seem to have different effect here though as i've had about 3 hours sleep in the last 48 and i've got to be up in 3 hours to go on a tour of Halong Bay .

Remember RESPECT THE 5 EUROPEAN CUPS , RESPECT THE 18 LEAGUES , RESPECT THE WHITE RUSSIANS , RESPECT THE CREEDENCE ,  RESPECT THE LAO AND RESPECT THE SPAM !!!!