Hi All,

Well this will be one of my last blogs, as sadly my trip has nearly come to an end. :(

Nath, Dan (a guy we have been travelling with since Ko Chang) and I arrived in Ho Chi Minh after a 12 hours journey from the rain drenched Sihnoukville, only to find it pouring down here as well!

The next day fortunately the sun was at full strength and we were back to sweating buckets. Nath decided he wanted a tailor-made suit, in the hope that his stylish new look would increase his chances in interviews when he gets back home. lol I must say the tailors certainly did wonders and made the nicest grey suit in 48 hours. The rest of the day was spent exploring the city and sitting in a bar waiting for Jo to arrive. As usual Jo was late, so by the time she arrived we were all a bit worse for wear.

The rest of HCM consisted of visiting the Chu Chi Tunnels where we fired AK47's, M16's & M60's- great fun but deafening and at a costly GBP 1 per bullet ( we fired 30 each) we were certainly blowing our money away. We also visited the Independence Palace, the War Musuem and the Central Market. In the evening we happended to walk through the local park where about 300 Vietnamese people were doing aerobics, so Jo and I couldnt help but get involved in the action.

Sadly now it was time to say goodbye to little bro, as he had made an executive decision to go home 2 weeks early due amouting finacial difficulties (we just reckon he couldnt stand the thought of celebrating his birthday with the girls and wanted to be with his mates). Must say we had the best time ever and soo many people couldnt believe that brother and sister could travel so well together, even though they all thought we were a couple! lol

So this is where it was back to travelling with all female company and doing what all girls do best.....

After a 10 hr overnight bus we arrived in Na Trang at 4:30am, which is a commercialised beach resort. We couldnt check in till 12pm so we headed to the beach for a sun burning snooze. In the evening we hit some bars and ended up in the Sailing Club ,where all the travellers go.

The next day we had to get up early as we were booked onto a island boat trip...not great when you have a hangover. The trip turned out to be a booze cruise, where they encouraged Tiger beer drinking upon boarding the boat at 9am and had a floating bar midday. We managed to hold off on the beer till 12pm, good job as by 5pm i was hammered. During the trip we did snorkelling, visited a rather poor aquarium and sang and danced the day away and met lots of cool people, mainly Aussie guys. ;)

After checking out of our hotel that morning, planning to get the bus we had booked to Hoi An, with the state i was in that certainly was out of the window and we carried on our drinking antics with the Aussies. They kindly took us to the locals favourite restaurant, where you bbq the food at your table and the drink was dirt cheap. Being nice Aussies they paid for the lot and then took us to the Sailing Club for lots of buckets. As you can imagine i could bearly walk but was loving the Aussie company. ;) A few hours later we were on the train to Hoi An, having the worst hangover ever.

We spent 3 days in Hoi An, where we took out a loan and spent a fortune in the tailors- I personally think all shopaholics should stay well clear of this place, its lethal. Tailors
aside, this is a beautiful town with pebbled streets and hanging lanterns, right next to a river and a beach. Several visits later, we collected our purchases, which we are really pleased with.

After spending a mint, we decided to cut back on the travel expenses by taking the nightbus from Hoi An to Hanoi (22 hours). Well....what a nightmare. Firstly the bus had no air-con, we were then dropped in Hue, 19 hours from Hanoi and left to wait for a connecting bus, which didnt show up for over an hour. Then the bus driver decided to stick some VERY smelly vietnamese guy next to me and place others on the floor beside me, needless i didnt get any sleep. Oh and when we stopped for a toliet break the place had rats running everywhere and was disgusting. Dont you just love Asia!!!!

We arrived in Hanoi shattered but checked into a nice hotel. During our time in Hanoi we went to Halong Bay for 2 days and stayed on a junk boat and went kayaking. Luckily we had a great group of people which made the trip soo much fun. Also the scenery there is amazing.

We also went to Sapa straight after this trip and did a 2 day trek (20km) through the mountains and rice paddy fields. The scenery topped that of Halong Bay and was outstanding. Unfortunately the first afternoon the heavens opened and we got soaked right through, at the time we werent laughing but looking back it was soo much fun. Yep our legs were throbbing when we got back but it was all well worth it, we loved it there.

Out last night in Hanoi we spent in a dorm at the backpackers hostel and a big group of us headed to the hostel bar for a bbq and then tried our some of the local bars, where beer was 10p a pint, no joke!!

After 2 hours sleep and another travelling hangover, we got a taxi to the airport for our flight to Bangkok.

All in all, we loved Vietnam, probably my favourite country in Asia and would love to go back there one day- with an empty suitcase! lol

xxxxxxxxxxx