Once I had booked my tour to Sa Pa, I happened to be sat in reception and I heard that there was going to be a tour to Snake Village tonight. I had been struggling to find some people to come along so I jumped at the chance to get there tonight with some people from the other Hostel. A short journey by minivan and we had arrived in Le Mat (Snake Village), you knew you were pretty close with all the carvings and drawings everywhere of snakes...the first thing on ...

After yet another early start (I really think this needs to be re-evaluated as part of the tour) we were on our way back to Hanoi. Once again it seemed to take forever to get back. This seems to be a trend here with slow travel from A to B. However, it was also a slightly uncomfortable journey back as they managed to cram over 26 people into a small minibus...folding seats all the way down the aisle so no getting off in an emergency from the back! We arrived ba...

After accepting the fact that I just need to wait for my financial problems to be fixed by the company I pretty much did nothing today apart from walk around the town in search for a pen as I'd lost mine (you wouldn't believe how many shops I had to walk in to find one) and grab some food. Today was pretty much a do nothing day whilst I waited for 9 pm to roll round so I could draw out some money! However, since I was going to be here for another night I thought...

Today I woke at what would normally be the crack of dawn for me in the UK to get up and have breakfast so I could hire a bike and make it over to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Now I had heard the traffic here was a bit mental and it's true. There are random traffic restrictions but if you're riding a bicycle forget it you can violate almost all of them including going down one way streets but I am still not ok with turning right on a red light...we'll still wait for...

Ok more serious blog entry now...The journey from Vientiane to Hanoi really did take 26 hours and it was not the most comfortable. Arriving at the Vietnam border at 1.30 am for it not to open till 7 am at least allowed us to sleep for a few hours without the rocking of the bus and tooting of the horns jolting us awake. As I said, immigration is very thorough here, even your bags get x-rayed when coming into the country. I will admit I spent a couple of days wonde...