Hey there.. . . . We got to Hoi An ok and after being dropped off outside a hotel and trying a few others we ended up back at the original one. . . Now then, Hoi An is a sort of shopping town, for suits, bags and shoes, that kind of thing. . . It is renowned for it's cheap tailors and such, so you can imagine, Claire was in her element. . . . ? Now, to be fair, they are getting towards the end of their trip too, so buying suits and stuff here for work does have some financial sense!

After the journey up however, I wasn't feeling so good, so stayed at the hotel and let them two shoot off for a bit. . . A few hours later Nick came back and said that they had been hours in the tailors and bought everything and they were now in the shoe shop. . . . I joined them there and had a good giggle listening to everything they had bought, well ordered!

Now, to cut a long story short and for comedy value I am going to try an list what they bought. . . I know Claire will probably kill me for telling you, but I think its funny! So, here goes. . .

2 bags

2 pairs of knee length boots

2 pairs of strappy sandals

2 pairs of shoes

3 pairs of blokes shoes

2 dresses

5 coats

3 blouses

7 shirts

1 trouser suit

Oh yeah and they bought 2 new rucksacks also. . . hehehehe!

Besides all the shopping and as the weather had improved we managed to have a bit of a wander around the little sleepy town! It felt like a nice little place with a good atmosphere, with lots of quirky places to eat and drink. . . We found a very nice restaurant near our hotel with friendly staff and ended up eating and drinking there a lot. . . . We also got quite attached to some of the locals and in seeing their poverty felt a bit sad. . . But we helped them out by buying stuff from them and Nick donated some of his clothes. . . We also hired bikes from them for the day the following day and headed the 5 or so km's down to the beach area. . . . The weather had really improved and it was roasting and even though I did try and keep out of the sun, I did get a little tanned. . . Playing in the sea was great, as there was some huge rollers coming in and me and Nick got nailed by a couple of big waves. . . . ! Happy days.. . !

That evening we ate at the usual place again and after a walk around and a visit back up to the room we decided to take the guy up on his offer to take us down to the busy area near the beach, well, we thought it was going to be busy?!?! We got a taxi down to one of the nice beach resort places and to be fair, it looked pretty good and with a load of people in there, I reckon you could have a good night. As it happens, there was only a handful of people, so we got a few cocktails on happy hour (Mojito's - of course) and play a bit of pool and table football. . . The music was excellent, but we soon felt tired, I think all the shopping and sun had taken it's toll. . . . We headed back and crashed out for the night. . .

The following day we were leaving for Hanoi, so had plenty to do, collecting all the clothes and shoes, getting it packed, well not for me, I just sat on my bed laughing at Claire and Nick! We got packed up and then managed to get some food and a quick beer before getting on the bus at 2pm. The bus even turned up on time, which was unusual?!?

The journey on the bus started OK, we got chatting to a nice Irish couple who hadn't been travelling long, then settled into our respective iPod music choices and read our books. . . The time seemed to fly and before we knew it, we were at Hue, the next biggish town up the coast. There had been a plan to stop here for an hour but the weather was awful and everywhere was flooding, so I think the driver decided against it. . . We picked a few more people up and headed off on the road again, all was well in the world. . . Although the rain was pelting down, the driver continued in the same vein as they all do and drove like a madman, I have that many accidents since travelling, I give up counting. . . We got to another rest stop area and managed to get a bite to eat and a beer and started chatting to a nice little Finish girl before jumping back on the bus. . . .

Another hour or so into the journey and the bus keeps stopping and starting as if there is a problem. . . Turns out there was. . . After a few more attempts to get down the road, the bus finally pulls over. . . We are something like 8 or 9 hours into our journey and the bus died (In the middle of nowhere!). After an hour or so, we managed to establish that another bus was on its way, some 3 hours from Hue, so we sat back and waited! Then the guys on the bus started trying to fix the bus, rumour had it the oil pressure was running to high or something?!?! An hour or so later we were told another bus wasn't coming at all, this was then followed by the fact that it was because Hue was flooded up to chest height, maybe a slight exaggeration on their part?!? However, they did say a bus was coming from Hoi An, yes, yes, I know what you are thinking, that is where we left some 10 hours ago?!? Nightmare!

Extremely frustrated, people were debating what to do and one of the guys managed to flag down another passing bus, a local bus. . . There was only enough room to take about 5 or 6 of them, so off they went toward Nihm Bihn. Being the only logical answer, I managed to flag down a bus some 15minutes or so later. It was local bus, same as the one they had got, I know they stop because they like the extra cash. . . I ran down the road and checked on the bus and there looked to be plenty of room, so shouted everyone to get there stuff. Once on board, I realised that a lot of the seats that looked empty, actually had people sleeping on them, the where soon shifted however by this dodgy looking little dude who seemed to be running the show. . .

After a while, 8 of us off the bus where pretty much settled, although a little cramped and we where on our way again towards Hanoi, well so we hoped. . . ?!? The obvious quest came a few miles down the road, on payment. Now baring in mind we had paid $16 for the coach all the way up from Saigon some 2000km and that was in a proper coach, so I am thinking, $1 to $2 would be about right per person, maybe up to $3. . . . Oh no, this little s*** was from the same school as the corrupt boarder nerds. . . . ! He asked for $15 each. . . lol. I said you are absolutely joking and he said he wasn't with his evil grin. . . . ! Haha, got ya, I am sure he was thinking. . . . So after some negotiating, well me telling him to piss off, he consulted his friends and the driver and the price began to drop very slightly. . . . Still no headway, the bus stops and they ask us to leave. . Like hell, we were getting off in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain. . . I told him to do one and be reasonable. . . I think his selective deafness kicked in, something they also learn at numpty, lets con the tourists school! The bus starts moving again and another mile or so down the road, it conveniently breaks down. Now to this day, I actually think it did pack up, some problem with the electrics, due to all the rain I think?!?! Anyway, some 10 minutes later the bus is moving again and the negotiating starts again, at this time, we are extremely tired and fed up. . . We ended up paying $5 each, which I know isn't much, but as I have said before, it is the principle of the matter! So of he went, back down to the front of the bus, the little thieving b******, with the biggest grin on his face. . . Bad karma, that's all I thought, he will get his comeuppance!

So after that little scare we all settled in for the next 10 or so hours to Hanoi, our final destination on this bus, or so we thought. . . . I listened to some tunes, finished my book and did managed to get a few hours sleep, it's amazing how you can tune out all the beeping noises and they bus swerving around all over the place!?!? The bus finally pulled up at a mini bus station in a village / town the other side of Nihm Bihn! Yes, that isn't quite Hanoi. . . We were waved at and told to get off and get on another bus. . . You can imagine how angry we were with this dude by now?!?! And to top it all off the new company wanted more money off us, well, there was uproar as we explained that we had given the little dude $5 each to get to Hanoi. He lied to them and said we where lying, so after a few of us nearly ripped his neck off, he offered the company, I think, half price. . . You can imagine that they were not impressed with him either?!?! Not only had he scanked us, he was doing the same to his own people, a proper little river rat!

We stood our ground and refused to pay anymore money and made the little b****** get some of the money we had given him to pay for our fare. Reluctantly he did, however, still not the full price, but the new bus people seemed happy enough with the agreement. . . 30 minutes or so later and we were back on the road. . . The next leg of the journey was a bit none descript, other than seeing the aftermath of another accident we eventually got to Hanoi bus depot some 24 hours after leaving Hoi An. . . As ever the taxi driver tried his luck and wanted to charge us about double for the fare, but by this point, we were at out wits end and I think he may have seen the whites of my eyes, some backed down and pushed the button on his metre!

Hanoi. . . What a crazy city, now I have been in some manic cities, but I think this may top it. . . Millions of bikes and cars racing around in all directions, beeping there horns like crazed mad men. . . It was bedlam, but we got to our chosen hotel and got settled. . . It was a pleasant surprise to be back with the nice Vietnamese people again, as ever the staff at the hotel were lovely, they got us checked in and then helped us out with all our arrangements for getting to Sapa (Hill tribe town) and Halong Bay (Boat trip).

That afternoon we had a bit of a wander around and needed some food and ended up in this Irish bar, I know what you are thinking, but sometimes, you just crave western style food and after a few pints and an Irish hotpot a was ready for a power snooze! We headed back to the hotel and I climbed into bed. . . Next thing I knew, it was around 10pm, so I just took off some of my clothes, pulled duvet over me, grunted and fell back to sleep, well, that's what Nick tells me anyway! I must have needed it, as I was out for the count for 12 hours!

The next day I was up bright and early and feeling fine, so the sleep must have done me some good! We headed out again and after having some breakfast had a good wander around the city, taking in some of the sites and sounds! We bought tickets for later that afternoon for a water puppet show. It is supposed to be something you do in Hanoi. . . So later on we headed back to the theatre and it was good to see, a little bit weird, but still and good experience!

Later, we checked out of our hotel and left our bags as we were getting on the train later to Sapa. . . We popped out for a few bottles of wine and a really nice meal, before sitting with some locals and trying some local stuff, including pork burger things and snake wine (savage stuff - like tequila). We got our taxi to the train station and jumped into our soft sleeper 4 bed room. . . We were joined by a Vietnamese tour guide on the 4th bunk. . . He was a nice guy and seemed happy to watch some of the movie I put on. . . It was an overnight train, so after the film, we all crashed out and didn't really wake up til we got to our final destination. . .

So, ciao for now people, will let you know how we got on in Sapa, trekking into the hills with the hill tribe people. . . Fingers crossed for the weather!