My experience with Ho Chi Minh City was slightly tainted as I had food poisoning for a few days and was bed ridden. What I did get to see of the city was relatively average. It has a ridiculous amount of motorbikes so its quite funny trying to cross the road. The markets here were good as well but a lot more expensive than what we were used to from Cambodia.

So after our very comfortable over night train ride we arrived in a small beach town called Nha Trang. We checked into our rooms and headed for the port where we got on the 'The best second best boat trip in Nha Trang.' Our guide...Mr Pork Chop..yes that was his name...told us there were called this 'cos everyone claimed to be the best but no-one was the second best!! It made sense at the time. We took the boat to the floating fishing village in the middle of the sea and then docked at a nearby island and took the basket boats to shore. Manoevouring into these was about as easy as a drunk dog with 3 legs. After a walk round the island we boarded our boat and went snorkelling. At this point I could say the water was so clear you could see right to the bottom with all the fish and coral AND here are the lovely underwater pictures.........HOWEVER my supposedly indistructable waterproof camera leaked and went a little dodge SOOOOOO no pictures i'm afraid as it spent the rest of the day drying in the glorious sun and has now been banned from the water. (Please note not my fault for breaking it, I am aware this is the mmhhmm 6th camera ive had but engineering fault and is going to get fixed in Bangkok.) Anyway, we ended out lovely boat trip day with a really good fresh seafood lunch and another swim in the sea. That evening we proceeded to head to one of the local backpackers bars, Why Not, and all have a good bucket drinking sessions. This however turned a little sour after the 2nd bucket (about 80% pure vodka, 10% red bull and the other consisting of god knows what) and several free beers and the group stumbled home, the majority of which walked straight passed our hotel almost walking into the next town. Feeling a little worse for wear the next morning we all headed to a hotsprings spa where we indulged in mud baths and hydrotherapy, perfect hangover cure, ready for our next overnight train.

We arrived in Hoi An really early and after a restless nights sleep all we wanted to do was go back to bed, but we ended up going on a walk round the ancient city seeing all the beautiful architecture which is a mixture between Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese. With Hoi An been a bit of a shopping paradise, I decided to indulge myself a little and treated myself to a trip to the tailors for a few dresses and pants.

The next day we were to go on an included group bicycle tour of Hoi An countryside. I pretty sure our group leader didn't get the memo when it said group tour as within 2 minutes she's managed to loose 4 of us who were cycling at the back. After loosing the rest of our group and having a bike all day we decided to make the most of it and do our own tour. With no map, no guide and no clue where we were going we figured we couldn't get lost if we didn't have anywhere to go.....so we cycled. I never thought I would play the right left game in Vietnam but it was fun. We eventually found our way to the beach and played there all day...handstands, cartwheels, rollypolleys...yes we were quite the entertainment for the spectators.

So the next day 5 of the group decided that instead of the beach we wanted to go see some ancient ruins about 50km away in the mountains called My Son Cham Ruins. This meant finding our own way there, which after yesterdays adventures seemed definitely possible. So armed with our own motorbike and a drawings on a piece of paper for a map we set off at 6am and made our way there. After 2 hours and the most unforgettable and beautiful drive we made it. The ruins were gorgeous but it was a shame that most of them had been destroyed by the Americans in the war.

The next day we took a bus up the coast to Hue, going via Marble Mountain and Hai Van Pass. The marble mountain was beautiful, it looked over the sea and had all these wonderful caves that had statues carved out of the marble inside them. A few of us also managed to climb to the top of the mountain to see the view of the bay which was quite an achievement in thong flipflops haha. The drive along Hai Van Pass was spectacular as well...there's a couple of pictures I took from the bus on the way up the pass which don't even do it justice. You can see the whole of the coast line stretching way passed Hoi An as your drive up the side of the moutain. Very picturesque.

Our first day in Hue was taken up by a group motor bike tour. We started early and had our own morotbike plus driver who took us round Hue and its countryside on the back of their bikes. The first place we went to was a small Japanese bridge and whilst we were there a lady just came and sat with us and started reading a couple of people's palms. Nha told us she was a very good fortune teller and even read her palms. She read mine and according to her I am marrying at a young age :S...... 25, will have 3 kids and be very wealthy....3 houses...maybe one for each of my children. She said a lot of other stuff but no point boring you now. The whole day was a lot of fun and we visted a monastry for lunch, tombs and pagodas.

After Hue we took another overnight train to Hanoi, which is where I am now. We've been here for 4 nights now, one of the days included a trip out to Halong Bay which was beautiful. We spent the day on a boat travelling out round the limestone islands and then visited a cave which had some very interesting rock formations haha. After this we were jumping off the boat in the sea to cool off, relaxing on the boat deck and just taking in the beautiful surroundings. I can honestly say sat on the front of that boat taking in the view was what I came travelling for.

The rest of the time we've spent in Hanoi has just been milling round the city taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the Vietnamese culture as this is our last destination before heading into Loas. Our last meal with our Vietnamese guide Nha was good fun. We've all been together quite a while now so there's good banter going back and forth and we managed to get her drunk for the 2nd time in her life haha! We met our new tour guide last night, her name is Nan and is Thai, she seems like a really nice girl and am looking forward to getting to know her. Not sure if I can say the same for her getting to know the group as we're all pretty rowdy now that we've spent a month together.

Excited now for Loas, especially Vang Vieng which is renowned for its river tubing. Will keep you all updated as much as I can.

All my love, hugs & kisses

PIppa xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx