After a small nap we got up and found a massive lake in the city centre. After walking around it we picked up the passports and headed to the Laos embassy to get some visas. The driving is even worse here than anywhere else we have been yet. There's literally millions of mopeds. Crossing the street you take your life in your own hands, as there's just a constant stream of them. The mopeds were also carrying big trees on the back of the bikes. Apparently it's the equivalent of the western Xmas tree, since its Vietnamese new year in a couple of days it made sense. Walking on the path is impossible as all the mopeds are parked on them. It's insane. Anyway we got to the embassy with half an hour to spare before it closed. The guard said that there wasn't enough time and to go back the following day. We headed back towards the hotel, had some food and an retired for an early night. When we returned to the hotel, nothing worked in our room - TV, air-con, WiFi and it was damp.

The next day we returned to the embassy with an hour to spare. He said the same thing and told us to go back in an hour after their lunch. We returned on the hour and were told to wait another 30mins. Total pain. But we got the visas in the end. We walked around the parks and lakes. We returned to book our tour to Halong bay.

I headed and got breakfast, James decided he wanted a lie in, so he ate his on the mini bus. We went around the city picking up people, at the end of it the mini bus was full of people that made a very uncomfortable 4 hours. Once we got there we got off of the bus and met the other people on our boat. All young western people, that made the trip really. Some Americans, crazy Australians and a couple from Iceland.

We set sale and headed around Halong Bay and checked into our cabin which was surprisingly nice. We had lunch while sailing. We stopped and went canoeing. James was in the front which was for the best, the poor lad got confused if you paddle right you go left. If he was in the back he would have been going around in circles for sure. We visited some caves afterwards, which were pretty cool, and then headed back to the boat. We had some time to kill before dinner so spoke to the others on the boat. After dinner we joined the tables, drank beer (not too much as it was expensive) and chatted. The night didn't end late by any means. We got up early and sailed back, the bus journey back was just as cramped.

When we got back we went our separate ways to book our bus tickets. James was heading straight into Laos and I was going further north to Sapa. We met back up and had some dinner before we had an early night.

The next day I managed to sweet talk the manger of the hotel to let us checkout at 2pm. We went for lunch and a coffee before we walked down to James' bus. A moped turned up half an hour late. I left James looking nervously sat on the back of the moped without a helmet, ready to contend with the crazy traffic of Hanoi. I got some dinner and headed back to the hotel ready for my lift. Luckily a mini bus picked me up. We picked up other people and got dropped off not at the bus station. We waited half an hour and another mini bus picked us up and this time took us to the station. I got on the sleeper bus and was seated at the back. From the last experience I dreaded the back of the bus but I had it to myself, so I had 4 beds to lay across. Winner. We stopped off after a couple of hours at a 'service station'. I made some new Austrian friends. Getting back on I fell asleep straight away. I was awoken with an Austrian guy prodding me with his water bottle saying we were there.

I hadn't booked anywhere to stop, neither had the Aussies so we teamed up and went looking around the small city in search. After 15mins we found a guest house looking over the mountains that was £3 for a single room. It was nice enough so we booked in for a night.