Lasses, lads. im currently in Hanoi. leaving Vietnam tomorrow to head over to Laos im gonna miss this place so much its so frenzied and fun! its def my kinda place. cold beer, markets and plenty of seats and also snickers taste really good here which never happens in Europe.

We had to get a over night train here which was really long so we werent really looking forward to it, we had to get to the train station for 2.30 to leave at 2.45 it ended up being late surprise surprise. timetables stand for nowt in this county. to prepare for the train journey we made our way over to Big C which is like Tesco? not realy it was terrible. it completely stank of off pickled onions if that is possible? i used the cash point straight away to withdraw 3million dong (im a millionaire here in fact probably a billionaire) and it said wait for you cash after my card came out but no cash followed so that was great, one of the shop staff rang the bank for and the girl spoke terrible english oh dear. i was just wanting to know if they money had came out or not but they had no idea i dont think. she said check online and if its came out then i needed to go to a bank of theirs in one hour. which i did not have and i didnt have a computer with me funnily enough so i couldt check so i just waited until i could get access. it all worked out good in the end and it hadnt came out blah blah blah. anyways in Big C which was NOTHING like tesco it was terrible me and Brydie (my drinking soul sister) got really excited as they had a bottle of vodka for 30000 dong which is like $1 for a good 75cl bottle made in vietnam haha so we went for that with some sprite n fanta to entertain us on the train as well as 24 cans! we are really going for the rock n roll train journeys here. i also got hello pandas so it was even better. the only bad thing was i had to carry the crate which is heavy in town nevermind when its 100degees and you have your massive backpack on at the same time. in all the exiciting times we had in the alcohol isle we for got to get water... good times! we then also managed to fit in a KFC for dinner in Big C so it was even more good times although i swear my burger had chicken bum in it. still ate it though as it wasnt rice or noodles or soup so it was quite a novelty!

one of the boys forgot his 'retainer' and left it at the hotel so had to do a mad dash to get it so he didnt end up missing the train. seriously a retainer. haha he made it in time though thank god as i dont have much hope him and his 2 friends could have made it to hanoi themselves the next day.

anways we got on the train settled in our cabin there was me Brydie, Janine and Stef and about 3 seconds in we seen our first cockroach crawling up the wall next to my bed. sweeet. not. so screaming we got Tong to kill it . we then saw another one under our table next to the backpacks but we lost it. nice. we then saw various ones throughout the night which was so lovely. the boys had a mouse in their room i dont really know which i would have prefered? probably the mouse to be fair.

anyways we drank the cans and vodka we did share them however as we are so lovely. we ended up going to bed quite early after playing loadsa card games. i dont think any of us really slept due to cockroach fear and also the aircon is FREEEEEEEEEEEEZING on the trains for some reason. luckily Josh let me have his hoody for the night as i obvioulsy have no warm clothes with me being a geordie and also being in asia where its seriously haawwwt!

we got to hanoi very early it was mental outside so busy and trafficy. we met our local guide called Hup who was around 14 years old he claimed to be 25 but i say No Way! he was very sweet and young and smiled alot. not much good talking going on there bless him! he was a real canny bairn i think. we then had a lovely 3.5 hour bus ride to Halong Bay which is sooo beautiful its picture on this blog. we stopped at a really nice 'restaurant' which was also a sweat shop where they made clothes. and sold soveneirs. we had breakfast there. Janine asked for Iced Lemon Tea and got boiling hot tea? then Matt asked for milk and he got a tin of condensed milk. it was one of the funniest places iv ever dined. 5 stars for sure. Halong Bay was lovely Its like a coastal resort although the beach is crap and a bit scummy. when we got their we got a on a lovely little boat trip where we had an amazing seafood lunch with huge prawns, crab, squid etc loadsa lushfood basically. Me, Janine ,Elisabeth and Stef then went kayaking round the caves for an hour which was wicked, it really hurt my arms but it was lush and really nice and peaceful round the caves, there was an eagle flying round too which did make it slightly horror movie setting but it was lovely and peaceful. then some japanese tourists started taking pictures right in mine and stefs faces when we were kayaking past their boat. not being funny but they do love the white people. we then got stuck on a rock when going past them so then they got video cameras out to film our amazing efforts. how embarrassing. it means that if i ever go to Japan im sure to be famous when i arrive as i beleive i am in alot of their family albums.

after the boat trip we went for tea in a lovely restaurant. the lady who ran it was lovely but the food was s***ty like. and the plates and cutlery were really dirty. me and Janine Random decided it was actually worse than the rat place.

after that we hit the night market which was nothing exciting and then we went to a Karaoke bar we got a private room it was brilliant. As you all know i am a excellent karaoke singer haha i did girls wanna have fun with Stef n Elisabeth then me and Janine did some classics, we did mambo number 5 which was terrible as we didnt know any of the other words! we then did dont stop me now which was better but our best song of the night was "cant fight the moonlight' amaaizng i think in fact we may get offered a record deal... the norweigan girls Celia and Anna were amazing which probably topped us ever so slightly. we then went back to have a room party with our leftover beers and vodka.

the next day we went straight back the way we came to arrive back in Hanoi. it is a pretty cool city i like it a lot i wasworried it was gonna be like HCMC but thank god its not its a fun city with good vibe. we went to the see the water puppet show wihich was amazing. only 4 of us went Tong warned us it would be terrible. He was right but it was hugely entertaining and i learned some useful sex education haha. the english words were on a screen ad the translations were so bad it was hilliarious. halfway though one of the puppets drums fell of so it was floating round and he just kept on drumming it was very cute. it was on for 45 mins but felt like a round 45 hours i think i was so close to falling asleep. on the way back to the hotel i was stabbed by a lady what a biatch! by stabbed i may be exagerating a teeny bit. basically on the women who carry the fruit in the big baskets accident;y rammed past me inflicting injury on my leg i thought she had ripped my amazing technicolour vietnamese pants but she hadnt so i thought i was safe but when i got back to hotel i really i had infact been stabbed. after a consultation with Dr Pete i think i'm going to be ok though.however if not its ok as he has observed amputation before and we saw a knife shop before which was handy.

for tea last night we went to a really cool place we had to walk all thrpugh the restaurant into our own VIP room it was awesome, one of those japenese type rooms when the table is low and you take you shoes off etc. was funky! in hanoi the food is spicy and so far iv not really being able to get spicy food apart from asking for actual chilis to add to my meals so its quite good here for mé!!

we then went to a cool bar with the teeny seats outside on the road where its illegal so when the police come round ready to bust some asses you get told to stand immediately and the staff hide the chairs and pack everything up so it looks like nothing is happening its very funny!! another lovely quirk of Vietnam! we then went to a bar which was pretty cool it was all comfy seats on the floor low table again and sisha which was liquiorice flavour apparently. it was pretty gross, im a strawberry or nothing girl! the beer was pretty cheap. i get drunk on like 3 beers here which is pretty impressive i think i might have had 6 in total so i was pretty tipsy! Dr Pete made friends with some crazy austrailains so i went and had a drink with them outside for a bit the man was probably the hottest man alive. Australia version of George Clooney but younger(ish) his wife was crazy and they were saying they usually go to Bali on holiday as its so cheap. they pay less to go to bali than we do to go to Turkey. that is shocking!! we stayed at the bar util the police came and kicked us out haha the police are proper hitlers here crazy communists!! so we went to 'half noodle/half man' for food on the way home which is their version of munchies. i had chips minus the cheese and garlic sauce they were so good. we got in around 2.30 and i think i must have fell asleep straight away. i was up for breakfast for 8.30 and then out by 9.15 i am a seriously good proffesional!!

today i havebeen round the French Quater then went to the Literature Temple which was really beautiful. then i have been shopping buying matching vests with Janine Random and Brydie which we will be wearing tonight as we are super cool. they say think global drink local. which is very true. i really want a 333 beer vest as that is my drink of choice here. its seriously strong!!

tonight is stef (my roomie) and Elisabeths last night im so gutted they arent staying im going to miss them loads!! Stef has been the best roomie ever and she has donated me some amazing bruise cream as obviously im full of bruises which is due to my 'blood disease' according to Dr Pete...? although he also states i dont sneeze properly. damn Swedish! we have an australian couple joing us tonight to come top laos and thailand with us tonight too so its gonna be a goodbye and hello party. i sense messy times ahead indeedy!! our flight tomoro is also not until 5.30 pm so i sense a lie in day!! woohoo!!

anyways anything iv forgot ill back track on later. big loves xxxxxxx