So we flew out of Vientiene with Lao airlines which was an experience in itself! It was a pretty small plane and they had the most colourful seats! They were blue with big bright butterflies on them it was like something from the 70s! The flight was only 1 hour but the cabin crew came round with a lunch box and in it contained a croissant with a hotdog and mayonnaise, a water and two pieces of fruit (the messy type of fruit that we hate passengers bringing on!) very random airline food but hey it filled a gap! We arrived in Hanoi airport and got to the immigration desks. The immigration officers were really scary we had to wait 5 minutes and the guy kept checking the stitching in my passport and the guy ady had kept looking at him and then the picture! We finally got the ok and collected our backpacks and made our way outside. We managed to bypass the taxi hounders and headed straight for a minibus which we had heard about. We got in and they said they would take us to the Vietnam airlines office in the centre of Hanoi for $2 each - bargain! We got dropped off in the centre as promised but we got off the bus and stepped into MADNESS! We got hassled first my loads of motorbike taxis, then came the cyclo guys and taxis pulling up, but we kept walking. We got talking to another couple who were also looking for accommodation so we all walked together and tried to follow the lonely planet's map! Crossing the road in Vietnam is an art in itself. In the books it tells u to just walk slowly in front of all the traffic and they will drive around you! That's easier said than done though when there are a hundred mopeds coming down the road! We all decided to just go for it so we got next to some people from Vietnam and walked across alongside them! It was scary but after a few days we got the hang of it. We eventually found a guesthouse called Mahn Dung which was pretty cheap, I'm not sure how we found it though as it was down a dodgy backstreet but there were about 5 backpackers guesthouses down there so it wasn't as bad as it first seemed!. We stayed in Hanoi for 2 nights then we booked a trip to Halong Bay which is about 3 hours away. Halong Bay is voted as one of the worlds natural wonders it has about 1800 limestone islands and rock formations some of which are big and some quite small. It's taken millions of years to form and after various earthquakes and corrosion it has ended up with many islands and caves. The boat was great we did the 2 day one night trip were you stay on the boat in a nice cabin room that has its own bathroom and double bed (we actually thought it was better than some of our guesthouse rooms!) There were only ten people on the boat which was a good number. They served us lunch first which was amazing about ten dishes including crab, squid (which we both tried - a bit chewy ha!) mussels, cockles and grilled fish. Then we docked at a cave called the amazing cave. You have to climb a lot of steps to get to it which isn't too good in the heat but the cave itself was amazing, the biggest cave I've ever seen. They have different coloured light to show up the different formations and they have names for a lot of the formations that look like humans or animals including the baby bear, the turtle, the couple the tiger etc. After the cave we then got on the boat and went to another area were we swam around the boat then got kayaks and kayaked to a lagoon. The lagoon was really good as no boats could go there only kayaks; there is only a small cave as a way in to it! There are lots of monkeys living in the surrounding islands around the lagoon but we didn't see any. We then docked for the night in the middle of some big islands and again had a lovely meal and sat on the deck looking at the stars (how romantic!). We were so tired we went to bed at half 9. Luckily we were with a lot of older people so everyone was in bed quite early and we didn't look like the boring two! The next day we got up at 8 for breakfast then went to a small beach area on one of the islands and climbed lots of steps yet again! Ady climbed all the steps and carried on to the top of the island! We then had a swim for an hour and the boat made its way back to the harbour. We stayed another night in Hanoi then we decided we would get a sleeper train to Hue which was once a former capital.