Hiiiiiiiiiiiii!!

Sorry it's been such a long time since we updated this! Internet has been hard to come by and then before you know it it's over two weeks later!!

The meditation retreat was very interesting. We stayed in a beautiful monastery where monks go to live and train. We lived as the monks do, getting up at 5am to a gong, chanting for half an hour, meditation for half an hour, exercise for half an hour then alms (offering to the monks) before breakfast. Then we would meditate for an hour or two! Walking meditation, sitting, lying, etc. We had to do a ten minute chant at the beginning of each meal to say we wouldn't eat the food for pleasure or enjoyment just to rid ourselves of hunger for while! Eddy hated it and said it was worse than prison! Haha! Some of the people were a bit weird... But I'm glad we did it :D

We then went on to spend a week in an apartment which was saweeeeeeet!! We cooked our own food, watched DVDs bought from the night market, etc. We went to doi suthep, Eddy did muay thai (while I sat in a coffee shop with my book :D ), went to lots if different food markets, saw the sights.

We made our way down to Sukhothai - the ancient city! It was incredible. The best place we've been. If you see anywhere in Thailand, see this!!!! We rented bicycles for the day, for 60p, and cycled around the national park. Unbelievable. We even helped kids on a school trip with their English and they asked us questions about Thailand and the food etc. Once we helped a few if then they all came to us!! We must have done thirty each in the end!! The guesthouse we stayed in was soooooo lush! They gave us a 'Mac Daddy' room (according to eddy Hehe!) For next to nothing and breakfast was great! Their kids were really cute too! They even leant us brand new bikes for free to cycle into the town and a free lift to the bus station! And even gave us Thai snacks for the journey! (Which opened in my bag and smelt terrible haha!)

We went to Phitsanulok for a day before heading to the airport in Bangkok. It was really up market there with a big department store and everything!!

We got the train back to Bangkok and Eddy spotted one of the stations was the don muang airport!! So we didn't even gave to transfer! We then slept in the airport (it was 10pm as the train was dekayed and we had to check in at 4am so didn't need a hotel). Flight was fine, landed in Vietnam...

So we're now in Vietnam. Treading carefully here so as to not slag off an entire race... We don't like it. Words cannot describe the people here. Such a shock from Thailand!!!! We were so looking forward to it. It's such a shame, we had no idea it would be like this!!

We have seen Hanoi. It was crazy. Bangkok is a walk in the park compared to Hanoi!! We stayed half a day and made our way to Halong - where we are currently. We saw halong bay which was overrated and overpriced. You had to pay extra for everything - lunch wasn't included, we stopped for 45 mins and you had to pay more for bamboo boat ride and kayaking. I think the only way to enjoy Vietnam is if you're on holiday and can pay lots of money so you don't actually have anything to do with the people. Like when they laugh in your face for trying to speak Vietnamese. The list is too long of how rude they are. I hope this isn't too negative. We haven't seen the whole country and it is unfair to say the whole of Vietnam and the whole of the Viets are like this. It's just what we've experienced and it's been made worse by spending two months in Thailand with wonderful people. Some say it's because of the war, which is still very evident. But I cannot agree. What about Laos and Cambodia?? Even Thailand has a war ridden history. It may be the war that has done this to the people but it is not the only contributing factor. Please see these links for more info if you're interested on why we've been made to leave a Country we had planned on spending two months in.

http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-ill-never-return-to-vietnam/

http://travelogue.travelvice.com/vietnam/reasons-to-hate-vietnam/

But there is light at the end of the tunnel!! We are going to Laos - even though it means starting our malaria tablets early. We're back to Hanoi today and hopefully start the 20 hour bus journey across the border tomorrow.

Will keep you posted! Love to you all xxxxx