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VIETNAM!

We have had a busy time whilst in Hanoi (capital of Vietnam)! We basically got off the plane and the next day went on our 1 night 2 day boat trip to Halong Bay! This was AMAZING! Halong bay is one of the beautiful places in the world and our boat was very nice, we explored sung sot (surprise) cave , hiked up to the Titov viewpoint, went Kayaking and learnt how to make Vietnamese fresh spring rolls (not the Chinese deep fried ones!). The food was good and there was loads of different Vietnamese dishes to try (well for me to bully jake into trying! Lol). I'll post loads of pics now! We spent a lot of our time on the boat with an Italian couple who we're lovely although they couldn't understand how I don't like both beer and wine - they said 'it is not possible we have never met anyone in our lives that does not drink beer or wine! (In a strong Italian accent) haha! The drive to get to the boat was around 4 hours and of course there are no seat belts in the busses! The roads over here are like nothing we have ever seen before! ABSOLUTE CHAOS!! No lanes, loads of traffic including cars, pedestrians and mopeds and no pavements! It took us ages to get the confidence to just cross the roads as you have to just had go and all cars and mopeds will go around you! Haha it's also pretty scary as a passenger on the busses so I just tend to close my eyes!

We spent yesterday evening walking round the city and enjoyed walking round the night markets and watching local buskers (the city comes alive at night with families sitting drinking near the lake with the children playing and it has a really nice family feel so we had a lovely meal and drinks (costing £11)!! It's also really embarrassing as they only give chop sticks out at the restaurants and after 10 mins or so of trying I get to impatient and have to try and explain what a knife and fork is and if we could have some!

Our hotels are really nice but I'm currently having a meltdown because PEPSI MAX IS NON EXISTENT IN VIETNAM (so far) and Having major withdrawal systems having to cope with Coke Zero!! Its also difficult trying to explain to the Vietnamese in the restaurants to use less oil in my food as feeling massive and on a massive diet now before xmas!! There is no English food over here in the shops like baked beans, wholemeal bread etc so keep having just have a portion of steamed rice for tea so I know there is no hidden syns! Lol

We have an early morning flight to Da nang tomorrow (up at 3am!) which is a beach destination so we are looking forward to a more relaxing few days! It's quite Christmassy here and I'm hoping everywhere else we go is too! Missing home more than ever at the minute so Christmas decorations make me feel better!

On a plus note I have not seen any wild cats or dogs! Woo hoo!

Lots of love!! Xxxxx