Hello all, its us again!

Last time we spoke to you we had just arrived in the mountainous town of Dalat enjoying the cooler conditions! But this was also the start of the rain!! We only had one day to see the surrounding areas of Dalat so we did a little guided tour. We went to the kings palace where kings of old used to stay when they came to dalat on holiday, saw some amazing scenery at a meditation centre and a pagoda decorated with thousands of pieces of collected/recycled glass….it was really spectactular! We also went to a really nice waterfall where we did a tabogan ride down to the falls….kinda random thing to have at a waterfall but it was cool! Then we went to "Love Valley" which is this place in the valley dedicated to romancing! Vietnamese couples come here to have a little smoochy cause its not the done thing to do that sort of thing in public! But it was such a cheesy place with all soft music coming out on the speakers and all these swings and benches with hearts and flowers over them etc...you'll see what I mean from the pics! Lucky we went there before lunch...:)

Next morning we left Dalat to start a mammoth journey up the coast to Hoi An, via a place called Na Trang. It took us 5 hours to get to Na Trang….spent about 5 hours in Na Trang and then got on a sleeper bus (bus with bunk-beds!) for a 12 hour journey to Hoi An. It was a LONG day!

We arrived in Hoi An at 6am! Hoi An is a REALLY pretty town along a river and is famous in Vietnam for custom made clothing! We thought we'd go have a little look to see what all fuss was with not much intention of actually having anything made…hmmm…2 suits, 1 coat, 2 shirts, 2 dresses, shoes, trainers and a pair of boots later we were dead….and pretty broke!! But it was definitely worth it! Having a tailor-made cashmere suit for 60quid, silk dress for 15quid is a no-brainer! So we pretty much spent the next four days going back and forth to our tailor to have the stuff measured, fitted, re-fitted, re-designed (well, I just needed one go…nicky on the other hand….) etc! We did make it to the beach on the last day…but something we've become quite familiar with in Vietnam happened…it rained!! :)

Oh we also went to My Son which was a huge ancient hindu temple site.. before the Americans bombed most of it!! Apparently there were 70 temples before the war which the americans thought were being used to shelter the viet cong so in a word they bombed it!! It wasn't half as impressive as Angkor temples but was more interesting to hear about the Hindu gods they worshiped before the country became Buddhist!! We also went to a place called Marble Mountains… we did actually try and do this ourselves by getting a public bus to the town and then walking to the mountains. Approaching the mountains they looked really impressive. There are temples scattered all over the mountain within the greenery and also in huge caves! The view from the top was impressive but so typically Vietnamese … stunning natural beauty a stone throw away from the slums!! Overall our time in Hoi an was really chilled out and in such a pretty setting (and major retail therapy) we had a great time! We also met some really nice locals…one girlin particular called Chao whose restaurant we ate at everyday cause she was so nice and the food was so good…and cheap!!

From Hoi An we continued north to the town of Hue which was the old capital of Vietnam before all the wars. We decided to do another tour of the city (cause we were too lazy to find everything ourselves!). It was a pretty dodgily organized tour which was overbooked so we had to follow the tour bus in some other dudes car!! But at least we got to see everything. The main sights around Hue were the Emperors Citadel which was mini city within the city built within a high wall and moat where the emperor would chill!!

We also visited some tombs built for the emperors which were quite impressive cause they were huge and no-one knows where they are actually buried… it was kept a secret because the emperors were buried with all their gold and valuables! We also visited some random places (which they tend to take you on these tours!!) like traditional sweet and hat making shops!! Was a good day but we wished we had done it ourselves rather than on the dodgy tour!

Next day we thought we'd hit the beach again… we hired a moped and off we went!! When we got to the beach we actually drove straight past it cause it was SO deserted…not even one other person on the beach….just a load of empty vendor stalls! So we had the entire beach to ourselves to enjoy the sunshine….and then it rained….and rained…and rained!! Just before it was time for us to leave, the rain finally stopped and the sun came out! Haha!

So then we did ANOTHER sleeper bus all the way up to a town called ninh binh. Neither of us got much sleep on this bust though as it was a really old and rickety bus which threw us around in out little bunks!!

After a little sleep in Ninh Binh, we decided to see what we came to see that afternoon cause the town itself wasn't the nicest! Right next to Ninh Binh is a little town called Tam Coc which has the most amazing natural phenomenon….hundreds of limestone mountains just appearing from the rice paddies…it really was a sight to behold! We hired a little slow paddle boat (with a man paddling, not me!!) to travel along the water through all these caves and grottos…it was like nothing we'd ever seen before! And cause we're in low season, it was pretty much deserted so it felt SO peaceful just gliding along the water with all these rice paddies and mountains around you!

Next morning we got out of Ninh Binh and headed to Halong Bay…which if any of you have seen that top gear episode on Vietnam, is where they ended their challenge. They say its one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Its very similar to Tam Coc in that it's a collection of 3000 islands scattered around…but these are in the sea! The tours of the islands were really expensive so we decided to just head to the marina and see if we could wrangle our way onto another tour for a smaller amount! We managed to get onto a Vietnamese tour for about the 5th of the price of doing the tour ourselves and it was so much fun! The Vietnamese group were so intrigued with us foreigners and kept asking to have pictures taken with us! One lady (quite elderly…definitely NOT a ego boost!) even asked me for a picture and THEN my number…which nic found hilarious!! I think she just saw me as son! Anyway, they were all from the same town and so they asked us if we wanted to go to another town with them before heading to Hanoi (which is where we actually wanted to go). Unfortunately, cause of time, we couldn't go within them, but it was really nice of them to offer! Halong bay itself was every bit as spectacular as it looked on top gear…we even say the little floating bars out in the middle of these islands!!

Next morning we left Halong towards our current location…the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. This city isn't really anything amazing but the old quarter which we're staying in is quite quaintwith lots of little streets…all with the usual grimes you come to expect and love! With the rain still beating down we have done a great amount It actually rained so hard yesterday morning that the entire area around our hotel was flooded so we couldn't leave the hotel!! The water was upto peoples knees so obviously it also came into the reception area of the hotel! So cause of all the rain we just decided to get ourselves sorted (hehe) for our trip into Laos. Us being us, we arrived in Hanoi with a plan to cross the border at one crossing and then realized that we can't actually get to it or get anywhere from there on the Laos side…so we had to rethink cause the most common crossing is about 24hr bus journey back south which we definitely didn't want to do! So we've found another border crossing…slightly less traveled but still an accessible crossing, so we're gonna have a go at crossing there…fingers crossed!

So tonight we take an overnight sleeper train into the mountains of north Vietnam to a town called Sapa where hopefully we can see some beautiful landscape. I say "hopefully" because it involves some trekking…which nic has sworn against since New Zealand!!! J

From there we will get the bus to the border and head into our 7th country - Laos!

So we'll hopefully speak to you guys from somewhere in Laos!

Take care all, lots of love, jay and Nic xxxx