Welcome all again to another exciting blog update from around the world! In our last episode our heroes were striving across south east Asia fuelled by noodle soup and a 24th March flight deadline.... or maybe the heat's getting to me...

So following on from the last blog we travelled down from Vang Vieng to the capital city Vientianne.Not much to say about this place as we only really had a day there and the heat was intense that we weren't really in the mood to traipse round a museum or the like.They had a really nice swiss bakery though that serves a lovely cheese and ham sandwich.

Before we left Vang Vieng, we had a long diliberation as to how much time we have left in Asia and what we wanted to fit in and the conclusion was there wasn't gonna be enough time to see Vietnam and Cambodia.We sadly decided not to go to Cambodia which is a shame as we've been reading a lot about the history and even made special effort to watch The Killing Fields before we left despite its' entirely inappropriate and confusing Mike Oldfield soundtrack (experimental noise electronica and mass genocide are not typical bedfellows).

So we flew from Vientianne to the capital of Vietnam Hanoi.On touch down the contrast with Laos was striking, the smily people and sunny weather were replaced by an Orwellian vision of grey concrete, overcast skies, hard faces and long trench coats.Ok maybe a bit overdramatic but I was nearly getting a tan in Laos and it was like being in England on a cold March day...(sorry couldn't resist!)

The atmosphere in Hanoi on first impression felt very similar to India with it's sucicidal roads and collective conciousnous to make some cash out of the white boy.Once we got settled this impression didn't really change but it is a really interesting city with a good buzz, great shopping (fake North Face galore) and brilliant resturants.

A few hours away from the hussle of Hanoi is the beautiful Halong bay, there's what feels like several million tour operators in Hanoi that will sell you a tour to the bay with varying degrees of standards.We opted for a 3 day tour which included a boat out to the bay and sleeping on a private beach with some kayaking, trekking and mountain biking - despite the overcast weather which kinda affected the visibility the trip was worth every penny! Amy ate lots of seafood and I had lots of chicken and a really nice dark meat which could have been beef but I'm told dog tastes similar so who knows, but it was rather nice and the Alsations on the island looked free range.

We cycled up lots of hills on poorly made Chinese bikes and went to visit the hosiptal cave which was used in the Vietnam war and cleverly disguised inside a big mountain. I'm sure in its day it would have been more impressive, but there's not much there now and to be shown round a concrete compound with several empty rooms being told 'this was the reception room', 'this was the office room' by an unenthused man didn't quite bring it to life...

So that's all for now, will do another blog soon as I still haven't really caught up yet, but there is an exciting tale of how Amy received 38 bites on her feet in one night and how her feet are swollen like balloons! The next update will hopefully include photos too (but maybe not of the ballon feet).

Love Tom and Amy xxx