Good Morning Vietnam!!

It has been another eventful week in the land of Greek....

ITS A MARATHON NOT A SPRINT

4 Nov - Overnight bus to Hanoi, Vietnam

I left Vientiane, Laos set and ready for a 24hr bus journey to Hanoi, Vietnam after a day of drinking a bottomless cup of coffee and chatting with some 'familiar' looking people from Tubing.The journey was an experience I will never forget…The bus was lit up like a Saturday Night Fever scene with multi-coloured lights and a large LCD TV at the front - happy days I thought, a film? some comedy? NOPE! Laos music videos played so loud even earplugs didn't work and probably the worst dating show I have ever seen/heard!!The presenter was a cross between Cilla Black and Julian Clarey, and the contestants looked like they had just had 'the op!'We stopped to pick up locals, drop off parcels on numerous occasions and wobbled our way to the freezing border - it felt like we were tipping over at one point!I think we paid for the customs night out by dishing out a dollar a stamp and luggage check - cheeky beggars!The journey took 27hrs in the end and we promptly found a bar for Beer Ha Noi on arrival!

HANOI

This city is mad and fantastic at the same time.There are thousands of mopeds, meaning everytime you cross the road you are betting with your life!Hoa La Prison was a highlight, where political prisoners and POWs, including John McCain were imprisoned during the war.It was very eerie and standing in death row next to a guillotine was particularly moving.

We ate at a buzzing restaurant on a street corner, where you soak up the Hanoi traffic atmosphere whilst eating anything from frog to salmon on the BBQ.A curfew in Hanoi at 11pm meant we were in search of a speakeasy of some type.A dodgy looking fella on a moped told us Tet Bar and we followed him to the street past some police and then into a dark alley with a single flight of stairs.Up those stairs was a dim looking corridor with black doors on either side.The guy who took us up rang from outside one of the doors - we thought we were about to be sold to the Mafia!! So we ran back down the stairs and out onto the street!After about an hour the police who were hanging around dispersed and all the shutters on the road went up - Tet Bar appeared, full of customers...we later found out there is a back entrance down a spiral staircase. Haha!

SAPA

Sapa lies in the North of Vietnam and is home to Mount Fansipan, aka 'Vietnam's Rooftop.' It towers above the town at an enticing 3143m. "We can climb that in a day" was the shout, so we booked a guide for 9am the next morning.In typical trekking preparation the Irish and I went for a quick drink whilst watching the footy.We returned at 2am after 8 Beer Hanoi's and a Shisha.Lets just say the first 2 hours were a LITTLE bit painful…Against all odds we powered on and reached the top after 6.5hrs of trekking up some steep terrain may I say so myself!There were some fantastic views….see pics.We (tried) to sleep at 2800m in the freezing cold, huddling together like penguins while the wind whistled around the Bamboo hut.It was like the mountain was getting its own back after we had destroyed it in a day!My highlight was the porters …they carried all our food, sleeping bags, pots and pans on their backs in baskets.They wore sandals to climb up and they still were miles ahead of us and hardly rested all the way! LEGENDS.

HALONG BAY

This is the place which finally made me decide to come travelling - after watching an amusing Top Gear episode.I'm finally here and its fantastic.Carved over millions of years, thousands of lush green islands scatter the Gulf of Tonkin and hundreds of junks (boats) ferry foreigners around them. We spent a day on Cat Ba Island which is the only one you can drive on, went Kayaking and visited some caves.The National Park promised 200 species of wildlife, so we visited it for a look at the punk hairstyled monkey and his friends.Instead we saw a butterfly, some large wasps and a spider!! I didn't see a punk hairstyle on any of them!

I'm now in Hue, which is halfway down Vietnam gettng ready to go and do some site seeing - its probably about time!

Will