Ok. So this is about the fourth time i have attempted to write a blog since our arrival into Vietnam and each time has been an utter disaster between computers crashing and the whole electricity being cut to the internet cafe, etc, etc, etc. So here it goes....

Greetings from Nam! Yes, we've finally made it into Vietnam, the craziest country we have been to yet. The traffic here in Hanoi is absolutely nuts, you take you life into your own hands each and every time you attempt to cross the street. And Hanoi is supposedly considered quiet when compared to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

The 24 hour bus journey which we took from Vientiane to Hanoi was actually quite comfortable, i've been on worst Bus Eireann journeys to Dublin! We arrived into the bus station in Vientiane to find that our bus to Hanoi was already full, an hour before it was due to depart. So, we were put on the bus to Vinh (Central Vietnam) and told that we could change to a bus to Hanoi there. So on we got (we were the only westerners on the bus) and we set off at 7pm in the pouring rain.

Around 2am, in the middle of nowhere, the bus pulled up outside a guesthouse. Out hopped the driver and into the guesthouse he went to sleep in a bed while the rest of us on the bus tried to get as comfortable as possible and sleep. Around 6am he reappeared and we set off again for the border crossing. The Laos border crossing was mad. We soon found out that queuing is an alien concept to the Vietnamese, everyone was pushing each other out of the way to get their passport into the officals. I think the Laos officals took pity on the dumbfounded westerners (there we about 10 of us) and took our passports first and with that we said goodbye to Laos and proceeded over the border.

Vietnam immigration was the worst immigration we have come upon yet. Even though we had our visas and everything else in order they still scrutized our passports and continually asked us for our ID cards. When we replied blankly that our passports were our ID cards they just looked back at us in disust. Eventually, we got all our stamps and back onto the bus heading to Vinh. Got into Ving around 12.30pm and from there got a minibus to Hanoi arriving aroun 6pm.

Hanoi is by far the busiest city we have been to in quite a while, everyone and everything is in a rush. We spent 3 days just wandering about and booking tours. We met some really strange people over those days. Our guesthouse manager chose to follow us around the street to see who we had booked out trips with when we told him we didn't want to book them with him, very odd little man. Was glad to see the back of him when we checked out and went on our first tour, destination Halong Bay.

Halong Bay is absolutely stunning.  It's a bay full of islands and has featured in a number of films including at least 1 James Bond film.  First day was spent sailing around the bay in our Vietnamese boat, called a junk.  That night we ate a beautiful meal and sat out on deck chatting with the rest of the tour group.  Next day we had an early rise and changed to smaller junk to be dropped out at Cat Ba Island for some trekking through the National Park.  I have never sweated so much in all my life, not even while gracing the footbal field for the pride of Shannon Gaels.  It wasn't that the trek was hard, possibly the easiest one we've done to date, but the humidity was extreme.  I was soaked through by the time we were completed, much to the amusement of Trish.  That night we staying on the island and next day back through the bay and back to Hanoi around 4pm.  At 8pm that evening we were picked up and brought to the train station for our sleeper train, destination Lao Cai.

From Lao Cai we got a bus to Sapa.  Sapa is a town in the Northern Vietnam hills.  From Sapa we set out on our trek in the pouring rain.  Supposedly there is stunning scenery along the trek but due to rain and mist visibility was at an all time low.  There were 6 in our group and with us came a group of local women who would assist us along the way (for a price).  Around 1pm the mist seemed to go away and we looked out on some stunning landscape as we trekked along.  With the rain continuing to pour down it made for some muddy and seriously slippy trails.  We came upon 1 village with a flash flood roaring through it but eventually made to to our homestay after 6 hours of trekking. 

That night we sat down with the family to eat a traditional meal they had prepared for us.  Every 5 minutes during the meal there was a toast and you drank your shot of the local rice wine.  This must have happened at least 10 times and by the end of the meal everyone was unsurprisingly in high spirits.  Then all the local villagers arrived to watch a programme on the tv.  Unknown to us, we were staying in the only house in the village which had a tv and every evening the other villagers would arrive to watch this show.  They all came in and watched in absolute silence.  That night everyone slept sound and awoke the next morning for our second and final trek.  After that it was back to Sapa and then back to Lao Cai to get our sleeper train back to Hanoi.

We arrived back into Hanoi this morning at 4.30am and with everywhere closed and the city in darkness we found a small coffee stall and drank and chatted until sunrise and then went in search of breakfast.  After breakfast we went to get our passports which were with the chinese embassy to get our China visa while we were on our trips.  We've now found out that our visas will not be ready till tomorrow.  However, we have a sleeper train booked to Hue for tonight.  We've been promised that our passports will be sent to us in Hue once the visas have been completed.  After all that we went to see Ho Chi Minh himself in his mausoleum.  The queue was well over 1km long but quick.  With police/army watching over everyone it was the most organised queue we've been in in some time. We finally got to see him lying in state and it was all very well done in my view.

Hanoi is a crazy town but we've really enjoyed it.  Tomorrow morning we should arrive into Hue in Central Vietnam, our passports following us a day later.  Looking forward to finally (hopefully) getting a good nights sleep on the train.....