Day 1

Arrived in Bangkok at about 5.00pm on thurs local time after an 11 hour plane journey from Heathrow with Quantas - wasn't too bad, there was lots of on flight entertaonment. Straight away we were struck by the humidity. We got a taxi to our hotel (Samran Place) for 500 baht - which is about 3 quid. Our hotel was in what we called a slum area which you might be able to tell by the pics.. We had a wonder aroind siam Square to see what it had to offer. We were constantly hounded by 'tuk tuk' drivers offering to take us to "girl"!! We had a relatiely early night as we were pretty jet lagged, my body clock was all oer the place.

Day 2

Walked around a bit more, had a look in some of the shopping malls for a coule of hours before getting taxi to the airportfor our transfer to Hanoi, Vietnam. The flight to Hanoi was delayed by about half an hourbut apart from that everything ran swimmingly! Hanoi was cold about 10 degrees - coming from 30 degrees of Bkk. Got a taxi to our hotel for 10 dollars.

Day 3 + 4

Walked around Hanoi both days ( we must have clocked up ome serious miles!) Hanoi is crazy - ever man and his dog has a moped - crossing the road os mental! traffic loghts are optional it seems. Just saw some of the local things to do and went to a couple eateries and pubs! very cheap - beer is about 60p a pint!! The local ppl laugh at us because we are wearing shorts as its their mid winterm but to us it isn't that bad - coming from good old Gsy! On sunday night (day 4) we met our intrpid tour group who we will be wityh through vietnam and cambodia. went for a meal on a local restaurant recomended by our guide (called Hai - pronounced Hi) - very nice - we were given complementary shots of local rice wine!

Day5

Woke up at 7, went to a cafe for brekkie - before travellong to Halong Bay - a 4 hr coach drive. We hired a boat which got up close to many of the little islands - this will be in the 7 wonders of the world by the end of thus year we are told! Meals were all included in the boat trip. The highlight of the day was kyaking! - we kayaked under an arch carved out in one of the islands into this canyon - the most amazing sight i've ever seen - it dawned on me why i wanted to go travelling in the first palce! also saw a monkey and played football on the on of the beaches we got to by kayak! We spent the night on the boat - chatting to the people in our group - exchanging stories etc etc. and also played card games whilst sipping loal beer.. The old junk oat we werer on was nosiy and my room was durectly above the engine room - but i haven't been sleepin very well anyway since we got here. my appetite was also fallen quite significantly - i'm not the biggest fan of vietnamese food- all they seem to eat is noodle soup. i definetely recommend Halong Bay to anybody - bit it would be even better in summer although the water is still about 23 degrees!

Tonight we take the over night train to Hue about 13 hrs - should be fun!