Well we sadly left Hoi An and we all agreed that it had been the best place so far. Just everything about it was fantastic…hotel…people…food…atmosphere and of course the clothes and jewelry making. The rings I had made are amazing and quality really good. I am also super excited about my news dress. Will try and get pictures on here soon of everything. We had a pretty drive from Hoi An to Hue through the mountains. The views were lovely however they overtake here all the time even on bends, which can be quite nerve racking when you see a petrol tanks coming towards you beeping its horn. I guess you just have to trust the drivers that they know the roads. We saw a pretty nasty accident on the way where a pig truck had overturned and the pigs were running around everywhere and the locals trying to herd them up ( do you herd pigs???). Anyway some of them had not made it and were lying dead in the road. Vehicles over here are pretty old…luckily the ones we use are normally very modern.

Hue was a strange place. We got there around lunch time and after some lunch some of us walked to see the Forbidden City which was heavily bomb in all the many wars Vietnam have suffered. The building and temples were all very oriental looking and many were being restored. The next day we went on a 5 hour moped tour. If it possible to get vibration white finger in your bum than I think after 5 hours most of us did. Could barely walk afterwards. That aside the tour itself was fantastic and the drivers took us out to the local villages and we got to see the real way of living. We also visited an old military base and a pagoda. There really is a lot of freedom using a moped although once again you have to put a lot of trust in your driver especially as they do not stop here at cross roads or roundabouts. They just beep their horn and weave in and out of the traffic. Mine tried to pick and fight with a 4x4 – who clearly won and we hit the breaks pretty hard. All good fun though (so mum don’t worry!).

We then had another over night train…..horrible…got on at 3pm and got off at 4:15am. Just not a fun way to spend the evening /night. I came up with the idea of having takeaway pizza from a local restaurant and taking them on board…idea went down very well with everyone. The guys drank a lot of beer to get through the night. Luckily there was no mouse in our cabin this time  hehe. After we got off the train we had a 3 hour long bus journey to Halong Bay. Arrived around 8am and it was cold…wet and miserable. Like being home really. We all had to dig out the jeans and jumpers for our boat trip around the bay. This was to see the big rock formations that they are famous for. The trip was very relaxing and we stopped off in this amazing cave to walk around but it had been over taken by a massive Japanese tour group, so our efforts to get around it quickly failed as there were many kodak moments for them to enjoy! Halong Bay itself is a bit of a dump to be honest – nothing else there other than the rocks.

This morning we headed back to Hanoi, which is where I will be until Friday. The tour itself ends Monday morning with some of the group carrying on to Laos. This afternoon we just had a walk around the old quarter which is just mayhem and tomorrow we are off to see the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. I have booked a ticket tomorrow with some of the group for the water puppet show which is a traditional puppet show in Vietnam. Have a few days then to just walk around and looking forward to seeing more of Hanoi. I fly back to Bangkok on Friday before starting my second tour next Saturday.

We have a big night out tonight so better go and get ready. Will blog again son

Rhi xxx