Hey Guys!

3 weeks today since we left sunny Brisbane and already I miss you all and Oz!!!

My global roaming also has finally been fixed today ... yay for Virgin Mobile only 2.5 weeks to fix my issue ... grr! I shouldn't get too excited yet though as although I'm showing network access I haven't recieved a text or a response to any I've sent?

We're in Hanoi and our Intrepid trip officially ends today - we had our first sleep in which was pure bliss and feeling a lot happier for it :-) It's pouring with rain and a lot of the streets are flooded to waist deep - i'm in an internet cafe and they're sweeping water into a drain beside me!

To cheer myself up I headed off to Gloria Jeans that I found down in the old quarter and got my first Soy Latte in 3 weeks :-) Cost 72,000 (dong) which is the equivalent of about $7 Oz. Far from the best coffee I've had but was nice to feel like I was in the western world for a little while :-)

We spent the night before last in Halong Bay - it looked a lot like the picture above only a lot more hazy due to the smog :-( it was still very beautiful though with lovely green water and huge limestone karsts but very crowded with boats. We hopped off and explored some caves and did some swimming and kayaking. In the evening we all sat up on the top deck from where we could see what was apparently the lights from China only 100km off in the distance. It actually reminded me a lot of my trip on Milford Sound in NZ.

We're off to Vientiane in Laos tomorrow on Lao Airlines - my 5 year old guide book has a write up saying "Do not fly Lao Airlines unless you absolutely have to" which isn't making me all that positive about the flight?! One of the people on our trip also laughed that aparently in Indiana Jones that cargo plane that he's on that crashes is also Lao Aviation! Only Lao and Vietnam Airlines fly there and at $298 USD for the 2 tickets Lao was the better option. Ooh and very glad to see hour $AUD is finally improving!!!

Once again I would add pics but managed to find myself back at the same internet cafe and on exactly the same slowest PC in Vietnam! 36 streets in the old quarter and I keep ending back up in the same one?!

I've been wandering the streets and came accross the food market but couldn't find any puppy dogs for sale - did see what looked like cane toads though - eww - and watched a lady who has obviously never heard of the 5 second rule, sorting out some chicken carcasses on the pavement - am sure I'll be eating them unwashed in a restaurant some where tonight - still not sick yet though!

Yay just got my first txt for 3 weeks - a link to the western world woohoo!!!

Anyway will stop rambling and get moving - I love and miss you all :-(

Shaz