Tuesday 29th May

We arrived in Hanoi, s***ty mood doesn't even cover what I was feeling, and I did warn Stu so he knew not to wind me up or feel the wrath! Since we not feeling our best the taxi driver took advantage of this fact. We jumped in a taxi, as we were pretty far out of town even though lonely planet reckoned the scale was 500m (my arse it was!) alarm bells went off when he put the bags in front of the meter, but I thought maybe, just maybe, it would be ok. We travelled for 5-8 minutes through the city centre to the end of the alley way where our hostel was. The taxi driver then declared the fare was 300,000 dong, which is $20. This was ridiculous! But we were so tired and fed up we couldn't be bothered to argue and paid and got out as quickly as we could. Never mind, at least it was only a 'small' amount of money in realistic terms!

We arrived at our hostel, Hanoi Backpackers and checked in and had a long awaited shower. We then booked up a boat tour with the hostel (the typical backpacker booze cruise!) and ventured out to find food and an ATM that would let us take out six million dong. Which is very unlikely as most banks only let you take out two-three million (roughly $100 - $150) which for two people doesn't last long and we are trying to keep bank charges to a minimal! We literally searched the SCORE! But they were going to charge me 100,000 ($5) to withdraw, normally they only charge 20,000 ($1). We carried on searching, until I made the point that Stu has a HSBC card and he should try it. Which he did, we couldn't take six million, but 5,600,000 which is the weirdest amount to withdraw. I assumed there was no bank charge as it didn't warn us!

While on our ATM search we did go into every single post office to find out about prices to send stuff back to the UK. I also tried to find the famous ice cream shop 'Fanny's' but I couldn't find it so I was very upset!

We found a daytime food stall market and sat down for some food, they had some really horrible options, pig womb and intestines. Gross! There is no really good food here, it's all pho (noodle soup) and it's all very bland, we worked out that Stu has used either chilli sauce of soy sauce on every single meal so far in Vietnam.

We returned to the hostel to lie down for 10 minutes before the tedious task of going through our bags and finding what we wanted to send home. We then decided to go back to the post office to get it done and out the way; otherwise I would never go back! We walked the trek, which started badly when I realised I turned the wrong way! We then had to fill in the longest form every detailing everything! We packed up our bulky coats, paperwork, souvenirs and anything else into a huge box. The total cost for sea mail was $33, better than the $88 for air mail!! We paid the ridiculous fee, so expect this to be received in the next three - six months mum!

We walked back, feeling very accomplished we managed to get rid of our coats and make more room, what to fill it with now?! I have managed to pack my big boots in there now, so the amount of space I have is zero again!

We also had to find out about buses to Laos, we wanted to go to Luang Prabang and work our way south to the capital, apparently this takes 24 hours and costs $45! The cheaper option was to Vientiane for 18 hours and only $24. We decided with the later! I am slightly worried about this bus from all the stories I have heard, so I have put this in the back of my mind until the day comes around!

We ventured out for some food and bumped into a couple we met back in HCMC and went and had some beers. We didn't stay out too late since we were both wrecked from the night bus and I could hear my bed calling me!

Wednesday 30th May

I woke up, feeling itchy, yes it has happened again. The bed bugs return, I was less than impressed and demanded with Stu to swap beds tonight and let him get eaten. I counted 70, 30 less than last time! I blame myself for sleeping on top of my liner as I was too hot.

I had a cold shower to cool myself down and prayed it wouldn't be as bad as Mui Ne. We had our free breakfast of banana sandwiches, the best sandwich after jam, and started to walk to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. I also blame the events this morning as I was not on my game today, we forgot to wear long trousers and shirts and we realised this when we read the sign. We had no choice but to walk back! We got a good look of the city though.

It is much smaller than HCMC but still crazily busy, but I didn't think it was as bad to cross the street. We have got used to walking out without really looking, which is bad I know, most motos do dodge you but there have been a couple of close calls! As the streets are narrow everyone parks on the path, so walking takes twice as long trying to weave in and out of obstacles. At this point I am getting worn down with Vietnamese life! We walked back to the city centre and had a wonder round the lake and sat down and contemplated Laos and life. We then had to withdraw MORE money for our drinking for the booze cruise. As soon as we were in the bank the heavens opened, luckily we had our trusty ponchos so pulled them on and walked back to the hostel.

We got ourselves dry and sat in the lounge and watched a few more episodes of Hawaii Five-O while it still poured down! We ventured out when it had dried up and found some food before retreating to bed for maybe our last decent sleep for a few days!

Thursday 31st May

We woke up and were ready and back for 7:30 am, our big bags left at the hostel and the few essentials with us, towels, swim wear, clothes…that's it! Stu managed to not gain a single bed bug bite, which annoyed me. Clearly I am more tasty looking then he is, I try to take this as a compliment but it's a lose-lose situation.

We met our 'host' in the form of Californian Steve-o. From the point go my vocabulary had decreased to five words, bro, dude, skullit (Australian for down it), awesome, sick. We had a three hour bus journey to the bay, we had a good crowd in the small bus (12 of us) there was about 30 of us in total! We had a laugh and a joke and arrived at the docks around 11ish. We saw the other tour come back looking worse for wear, one guy looked like every step hurt.

We boarded the small boat to reach the bigger boat, we had to have two boats due to the amount of people (thank god!) and soon we were setting sail in the Jolly Roger. Lunch was served shortly after, it was delicious! The best food I have had in Vietnam! Seriously! We were on a table of six, who clearly were not hungry as Stu and I were left clearing the plates!! We stopped in the middle of the bay, surrounded by limestone rocks sitting high above the sea. It was a very beautiful setting, reminded me of Yangshuo in China. We docked both of the boats together and spent the next hour jumping off the boat. Looking from the deck it didn't look that high, until you got to the edge. Eight meters high, it took me a while to jump, note to self, if you scream shut your mouth before hitting the water or be left with a mouth full of salt water! Not the most enjoyable experience! After that I left the jumping to the boys and sat down and watched!

Included in our package tour were kayaking, we all jumped in double kayaks and started paddling round the islands. It was pretty cool paddling through the caves; I made the fatal error of sitting in the front so Stu took the liberty of sitting and doing nothing. This ended up with me shouting, a lot!

We stopped off at a cave to explore, but it was pitch black and slippery, I decided to stay on the beach as I would end up falling over and damaging myself more!

We jumped back in the kayaks and headed to the floating village to catch a boat back to the big boat. It's amazing that these people live on these floating platforms and never leave; they had their own make shift aquariums with giant fish and crabs that I have never seen before. Clearly for feeding themselves or selling on. We bumped in Andy and Lois who were also kayaking, another 'small world' experience!

Back on the boat we had a shower and got dressed, it was a lovely little room with air-con that didn't work. Oh dear…!

We ventured back on deck and chatted until dinner was ready, two vital things I missed out: We had a few on-going games to obey to. One: not allowed to say the word TEN or MINE, which you say a lot surprisingly, you have to get down and do 10 push ups! Two: Buffalo (International drinking rules to normal people) get caught drinking in your right hand and get caught, you have to down (skullit) your drink. This is bad if you have brought a new drink.

I think I managed to only do 50 push ups the entire trip, I did say MINE a lot but no one caught me out, thank god as I suck at push ups.

The dinner was amazing and even tastier than lunch if that was possible. The drinking games were then started. I have no idea what it was called, but some of the rules were not nice. Luckily if you had a boy/girlfriend you can get out of most of these.

The night continued and got a bit blurry and I think I went to bed at 4 am, knowing full well that wake up was 7:30 am tomorrow.

Friday 1st June

We got rudely awoken at 7:20 am; it was a painful experience, as I did have a banging headache! We had breakfast which was demolished in seconds and waited for instructions! Half the cruise was going back to shore and the rest were going to the island for one night. Most of the Aussies went back, not surprising seeing as most of them did throw up.

We left the other boat and headed towards the sea more and boarded a smaller boat to take us to the shore of the island. It was a nice island, not as good as Koh Rong, but was set in a beautiful location and had the biggest butterflies I have ever seen!

We had lunch pretty much as soon as we landed and we had free time to lazy around. I tried to sleep, but this failed badly, too many bugs attacking me!

We signed up to take part in one activity, either tubing (attached to a speed boat) or wake boarding. I wanted to do tubing and Stu chose wakeboarding, which gave us the opportunity to sit on the boat and take pictures.

Tubing went first; we put on some lifejackets and hopped on an inflatable ring, without the hole! I didn't know what to expect, but the captain went off suddenly and we were travelling at high speed across the bay! Trying to hold on for dear life was difficult and before long I fell off! I had a mild panic that the force of me falling off I had lost my bikini bottoms, luckily I found them somewhere between my knees and ankles!!

I waited for a while in the middle of nowhere while the boat tried to dislodge the rest of the passengers. This was slightly daunting; the film jaws came to mind! The boat came and picked me up, getting on the ring was extremely hard I physically couldn't pull myself up! Holding on so tightly really hurts! We were off again, this time I was laughing so much at my other passenger whose head was in the ring that I had to let go. We both fell off and were laughing! Laurie said she had lost her bikini bottoms and I thought she meant completely lost, but luckily she found them. That would have been embarrassing!

We jumped back on, I was determined to hang on till we go to shore, but the captain was weaving in and out and Laurie had taken up the whole tube and I was balancing in between both and unfortunately the tubes moved about and I fell off! The captain came and picked me up, I couldn't pull myself up and Laurie was pulling on my life jacket to help me up! I don't know how she managed it! We pulled into shore, but the captain turned the boat and both Laurie and I fell off. We had to swim the rest of the way to shore, which was hard! All of our arms and legs REALLY hurt!

After the adrenaline had subsided it was the wake boarders. I jumped on board with my camera and got some good shots of Stu getting up, and stacking it! He did manage to get up on the 4th or 5th time until he started celebrating too early and stacked it! Everyone on board was very concerned that Stu was sinking. He did have a small life jacket on but wasn't very useful!!

We headed back into shore and chilled out and showered until dinner time, a lovely BBQ which was again, very tasty!

We, well Stu, played some more drinking games; I fell asleep in the hammock until I got cold and went to bed. Bed was literally a raised platform with a roof above us, very cool!

Saturday 2nd June

We woke up and were ready to board at 7:30 am; I must have looked like the walking dead, still tired! We boarded the smaller boat to get to the bigger boat to head home.

It was a very enjoyable experience, returning back to shore one of the guys from New York was trying to trick everyone to say the forbidden words, and succeed most of the time. I think one of the guys did over 600 push ups, mostly unprovoked! He'll have massive triceps tomorrow!

We landed back on shore and jumped in the bus to go back to the hostel in Hanoi, I spent this time sleeping! We arrived back at 4pm and checked in the hostel before going out to dinner.

We found a lovely stall/shop that sold the most amazing noodle soups, the first real local food I have enjoyed in Vietnam!

We had an early night to catch up on lost sleep and prepare ourselves for our long travel day tomorrow.

Sunday 3rd June

We woke up early and got ourselves washed and dressed ready to sort ourselves out. We found out we needed US dollars to buy our Laos visa, bummer. It was Sunday and the banks were closed, luckily the jewellery shops sold dollars. We managed to find a good buying rate and went for it; I picked up from Cambodia how to tell what real dollar was and checked thoroughly before leaving. All good! We felt pleased with ourselves and headed to the supermarket to buy some snacks for our journey.

We had been advised the bus is not that bad, can't be as the guy telling me had done it four times!

We went to the travel shop we booked the bus for and waited for our pick up, which was a man on a moto. I was thinking we can't both fit on that! Instead we had to follow him down the road to a smaller minivan! We jumped on and took the advice of hostel staff, befriend all the westerners! So we did! We had a bunch of guys from Hong Kong, a guy from Austria and Netherlands.

The mini bus went to a bigger bus station, it was huge, and we jumped on the bus. To my research this bus would have no toilet, which was correct. Bummer! I hoped the driver would stop often! We choose a couple of seats, Westerners have to sit at the back, but we let the guys from HK sit on the 5 berth seats so we could have our own private seats!

The bus was completely empty, and assumed we would be picking up more people along the way. Hearing stories I assumed people would be lying on the floor of the bus as all the seats were full, no toilet stops! We slept most of the way to the first toilet stop, the buses, after this I was dreading the bus more! A couple of hours later we stopped for some food and proper toilets! Phew! I was happy again! We got back on the road were we both had a very broken sleep; we arrived at the Vietnam border at 4 am. We got on the sleep straight away and had a good two hours kip before crossing the border!

Overall view on Vietnam:

Before I left on my trip I was the most excited about Vietnam, and I have left the most disappointed. I didn't enjoy it as much as other places, the whole country is about getting as much money as possible and not worrying about reputation. The locals are not as friendly as other countries and I always felt uneasy around them. There were some lovely people we met, but on a whole this is how I felt. The food isn't something to rave about either; I can't wait to find somewhere that serves a decent curry. By the end of the time in Vietnam, I was eager to leave.

The countryside is brilliant friends of ours have raved about an easier rider tour they did and said it was amazing. If I was to do Vietnam again, I would properly opt for this rather than the usual tourist route.

Total miles travelled from UK: 13,635

Transport taken:

Trains = 20

Boats = 3

Bus = 14

Hours ahead of UK:

+7