Hi all!

I'm only writing up five day's worth of events but we've done absolutley loads, so this may be a long entry. Dinner on Monday night was absolutlely fantastic! The food here really is amazing. We had cocktails for someone's birthday and left the sailing club at 2. We stayed up chatting untill very late and ended up going back out to a local bar untill the sun came up and the owner threw us out.

Needless to say we woke up late on Tuesday and while some brave soldiers had got up to go on a boat trip to a nearby island, me and one other decided to go to the mud baths. Mud soak, mineral shower, mineral infusion bath (like sitting in a cup of black tea!) a foot massage and a hot spring. We also opted for an extra full body massage (it was the price of a pint) which was of course lovely, if a little odd. I've never been stood on before! We met the others for dinner which was basic and boarded the sleeper train to Danang.

The train was pretty terrible! Totally filthy and filled with rats.. you can imagine the toilets. We arrived to Danang late due to tyhe train 'being broken' for 2 hours. An hour on the bus to Hoi An. There was flooding in the old town so we had to stay in a different hotel then planned. The town itslef is beautiful. Apart from the severe flooding, its lovely. Theres a long market street, lots of nice restaurants, and nice architecturre.Its famous for tailoring so there are some fab clothes shops. We had a lovely dinner weds and vivited a local bar which was really busy, full of localos and backpackers, offered great music and free pool and table football... stayed untill we got kicked out at closing, obviously. The hotel gates wete lo0cked and so our guide had to scale the fence to wake the secirity guard to let us in. Very amusing.

Up at 730 to meet for trip to MySon temple site, Hindu temples built between 4th-13th century. Loevly area with mountains and plety of greenery. Temples were fairly ornate but badly damaged by the french and american wars. Nice long walk which cleared the head a bit after the night before. Most interesting part of the day was listening to the guide's stories about the american war. He was a nice man. Thursday night of course involved a return visit ot the bar. Again we stayed untill closing and again the hotel was locked. thisd time, our guide climbed in, stole the keys, let us in, got our room keys, relocked the gates and we snuck in without the guard waking up at all... good security. Thursday afternoon we went on a bicycle ride around the countryside. briliant veiws of fields, farms, locals and water buffalo. Some of the guys sat on one for a photo oportunity. No way in hell was I going near it! Then a boat rifde with the bikes back home. Best dinner so far at green chilli restaurant, specialists in italian and mexican. Not a typical vietnamese dinner but delicious. I have to say Hoi An has been my favourite place so far, really lively and backpacker-y, but with none of the bright lights and busy roads of Saigon.

Up early again friday for the long coach journey to Hue. Stopped midway to take photos of lovely mountain views and beaches. Arrived in Hue about midday and hopped onto a motorbike to a monastery for lunch. WE stayed with the bikes all day and every journey was bloody terrifying. Pics and videos to follow! The food from the monks was vegetarian and very nice indeed. We rode through the countryside to get some great pictures, visted an agrucltural vallage with a rice farming museum. Then on the bikes to A mausoleum which wasnt particularly interesting. We then biked cross country to a viewpoint of the perfume river- stunning views. The bikes were sliding all over the places and in and out of ditches! Visited a place where they made (and more importanly sold) incense sticks. Then on to a pagoda (temple where monks live and worship). They had there the car in which the monk who famously set himslef on fire as a protest in the 60s arrived at his final destination, Saigon. Very sad. We said good bye to the bikes and took a boat back to the city along perfume river. Lovely night views of the city lights. Back 2 hours late so no time to change before being dressed up as Vietnamese royalty and carted off in a tuk tuk to a theme restaurant-bizarre! but very funny. the food was brilliantly presented but not that tasty by vietnamese standards. accomnpanied by traditional music whivch was... interesting. Afterwards we went on to a bar called DMZ and had a wha;le of a time! As it was the 11/11/2011 (golden time), they had a prize draw at 11.11pm to pick 11 winners of special prizes. we watched on in amazement as the locals went mad for it! The manager and chairman drew winners and cheeres away. I was hoping for a win as I had ticket number... 11. I got no prize and was not prepared to stand for that so introduced myself to the chairman (yes, i was pissed) and showed him my ticket, told him i was lucky so could he give me stuff. He did! A bar t-shirt and a round of drinks for the group, that'll do nicely! Very funny.

Up early on saturday to visit a citadel where the 9 kings of vietnam, lived with their huge families (up tp 500 wives each). Again, it was msotly destryed by the wars. Takeaway dinner/luch and another night train to Hanoi at 4pm. Absolutely shattered after those two days!

Today (sunday) we arrived to Hanoi at 4am, and eventually found our coach for the 3hour drive to Ha Long bay. We sunbathed in the morning and then met for a boat trip around the bay including lunch. there are 1969 small island protrusding from the sea all around and theyre very picturesque.huge and green, like little mountains rising up. Its very crowded with tourist boats though at the harbours. we entered a cave on foot which was discovered in 1993. Nice enough, very big and light which was good. the bay was named on friday as one of the 7 new wonders of the natural world so i'm glad to have seen it. never seen anything similar before. tonight we meet for a basic dinner as the town is small and not very well developed, and aim for an early night, as tomorrow we are in hanoi from early on and there is much cheap beer to be had there.

Sorry for my bad typing!

Roxy xxx