Hello,

After hoi an we had a bus ride to our next place, Hue. The bus took us right up in to the mountains making the boiling journey slightly more enjoyable. Elinor and I decided the best way to see all the sights was to get a cyclo tour around the city. We did pay for an hour tour however the cyclo men, who were sweating profusely, decided after an 40 minutes they had enough so refused to do the rest (still expecting full payment plus tip! which obviously they did not get).
Next day we had a motorbike tour around some sights starting with paddy fields, followed by a local village, an armless hat maker! incense maker and finally buddhist temple where we had a very tasty veggie lunch. The whole ride was so much fun although you do become the entertainment for local children who think its fun to punch you when you ride by. t*** . the motorbike tour man also ran over chicken, he said he would go back later to collect it for dinner. he wasnt joking. during this journey it also began the rain. my motorbike man kindly provided me with a pocka dot poncho which at first i though was very sweet of him, however when this poncho gets wet the permanent dye rubs of on to your skin. For the rest of the day i was covered in blue pocka dots.
This was followed by another over night train to hanoi. we arrived at 4 in the morning so before our transfer we went to hanoi lake to watch the local tai chi group do there stuff! very entertaining. at 8 we got our transfer to Halong bay for an all day boat trip.the boat was a huge wooden thing with a sunbathing deck on the top. After lunch we were allowed to swim around the boat for a while before heading back to land. On our way back we went caving up in the cliffs. This was lit up by neon light which was very unexpected as its so remote but a pretty cool surprise. defiently one of the best things this trip. Even though we were in these amazing caves, elinor was particually taken with the bins that were in the shapes on penguins and dolphins and i feel was not fully appreciating the beauty caves, instead she chose to photograph the bins.
The next morning we headed back to hanoi for our final vietnam destination.Had yet another cyclo tour around the general area. my cyclo man was yet again a very angry man who took to spitting on any cyclo that over took him. Hanoi boasts it has busiest round about in asia which i think is a slight exageration as me and elinor crossed it without any problem. we have learnt the motorbikes will avoid us as long as you dont stop or look up, cars however wont. That evening we had a leaving party for us lot that were leaving the tour. After dinner we went to a bar where i managed to find cheap drinks, finally learn and win at poole and found cheap shisha. This kept me and some other shisha lovers entertained until early the following morning.
The next day was another over whelming day of trying to shop, unsuccessful though.
Hanoi has a street for one particular item, for instance we walked down dried mushroom streeet, sunglasses street, bag street, sellotape street, zip street and there was even an ikea bag street. in the evening we said goodbye to all our tour friends and had our final vietnamese meal. We tried to find the night market however on this particular day it was closed. Fairly early night as we had a 5am start to head back to thailand.
We are now in phuket after a day of travelling. heading to koh phi phi first thing in the morning.

speak soon

soph and elinor