Hello!! Its been too long since our last blog entry....we are sorry, but have been really busy and I think the last few places we have been to have had the worst internet connections in south East Asia!! So where were we...Vietiane (your in a whole other country at the moment). Ok we left Vietiene on Thursday and took a LONG bus journey toward the Loal and Vietnam boarder towards the DREADED homestay!!! Ohooh!! The homestay was at a loalitian tribe village and on the approach to the village me and Naomi were starting to get a tad nervous (we really aren't backpackers when it comes to the crunch, and there was no getting out of this one-ie. no hotel to check ourselves into if the homestay was too much!!) The village was 'traditional'...really basic woodhuts, a hole in the ground in a bamboo hut for the bathroom facilities, but the atmosphere was great and the children beautiful as ever!! The village is on the bank of the mekong (i think- but definately a river!) and we went out on boats made out of the bottoms of b52 bomber planes and watched the sun set (twas beautiful!!) Back to village in time for dinner cooked by the family we were staying with and the local guide- very nice and absolutely loads of the stuff!! The bedroom set up was a room for 6 seperated by mossie nets. It was quite a lot like being at guide camp, but a little less upmarket- (never thought I'd be saying that about guide camp!!) Woke up at about 3.30 in the morning to the sound of a very loud cockerel and the smell of burning wood (unnerving at the best of times..but in a wood hut!!?) All was fine though had breakie and off we went (for another 9hour bus journey towards the boarder). A few minor issues at the boarder, at one point I didnt think they were going to let Naomi through, but all got sorted quickly and efficiently by Tania (our guide-who is really nice and unlike the pair of us actually knows what she's doing and has her head screwed on!!)

In Vietnam we almost immidiately noticed a big difference in the culture...compared to the shy retiring ways of the Loal and Thai people they seem like the loudest people you have ever met! And the drivers..OMG the drivers- they constantly honk there horns for no particular reason and crossing the roads here is a nightmare (we actually caused a minor motorbike accident today!! Very scary but funny!!) After a night in Ninh Binh we headed off to the harbour of Halong Bay for an overnight stay on a boat. By a stroke of luck the usual 'junk boat' was taken by another group so we ended up on an amazing LUXURY CRUISER!! It was gorgeous, the dining room was all frills (and way too much white for me to be eating in without disaster!!). And the food the crew cooked for us was amazing and as usual there was just so much of it!! After dinner the local guide turned on the kareoke machine= HUGE MISTAKE..Me, Naomi, Sally and Amy took over (for aparently OVER 2 hours- seemed like 10 minutes to us!) and sang our socks off to the rest of the groups HORROR!! We thought we sounded amazing and as we had a whole dancefloor to ourselves (everyone else left the room after the opening number??!!) we pranced around and had a really good girly giggle!!

After our night on the boat we moved on to Hanoi- really busy city where we spent a few days seeing the sights (I won't bore you with the details, but photos are being uploaded as we speak) getting really hot and discovering our shared love for the Vietnamese coffe shop Highlands! After the second full day in Hanoi and having visited Uncle Ho, seen the lake a fair few times and been to Highlands more times than I'd like to admit we were ready to be leaving for Hue. We took the overnight train (see photos) which left Hanoi at 7pm and should have arrived in Hue at 8am. But the rain came down and we all woke up a bit bewildered at about 6.30 to be told the rain had flooded the tracks and we had been in Vinh train station since about 1 oclock in the morning!! We waited on the train for news of what we were going to do and in the meantime made friends with some of the other (more convincing) travellers on the train. We ended up having to get a bus (with another couple of intrepid tour groups) to Hue which took until gone 11pm at night and featured a double of the main character in 40 year old virgin, the worse toilet me and Naomi have ever witnessed (we will give you all the gory details when we get back- don't worry) and a bus breakdown across 2 lanes of a dual carriage way!!

Hue was brilliant though (minus the bus, which is funny now looking back) we spent the next morning on a motorbike tour (again people please see photos) and visited the Citadel, Pagoda, the royal tomb and had lunch with nuns. Then back on a bus in the afternoon to Hoi An (6 hour bus journeys are now an absolute doddle to us!!

Naomi was in her eliment in Hoi An, she got rather tailor happy and has got some amazing outfits and coats that the post office struggled to find a box big enough to post back!! And Basil should soon be recieving a dress!! After two nights in Hoi An and not having seen much more than the hotel pool and the inside of tailors (oh and a rather funny cooking class!!) we flew to Saigon (or Ho Chi Min Cuty as we should be calling it!)

We arrived in Saigon yesterday and have so far found the local Highlands, been in the very tiny and very scary Cu Chi tunnels and been to the War Museum (a few tears from me...very sad!!)

Really wish I had more time to write, but we are always busy!

So love to you all!! So nice to read all of your messages.

Lots of hugs and kisses Naomi and Sarah

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P.s. I have been told there are a few problems with the photos, they are a bit out of order, bare with us and we will try and sort them ASAP.