Wow the buffet breakfast was amazing!! I had over 6 courses : there was real cheese, eggs, coco pops, choco croissants. I ate so much my tummy hurt. We took cyclo's to the Citadel where we walked around. Some of the group took elephant rides. We then took a bus towards Hoi An. We stopped along the route at a beach resort for lunch where the group ordered burgers ( I had stolen a pack-lunch from breakfast) The meat looked awful and Toni's chicken burger was so bad she had to give it back. It was raining but I still had [View Full Entry]

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Woke up on the train to funny music being played with messages over the trains radio. We checked into the Asia hotel and then dashed to our sightseeing tour with hardly enough time for a shower. We took a dragon boat down the Perfume river (so called as flowers used to flow down from upstream and make the river smell like perfume) We visited a pagoda and a king's tomb. By this time it was about 13:00 and we were all really hungry as we hadn't eaten anything. We managed to get some quick noddles before taking the boat back to [View Full Entry]

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We took a smaller boat to one of the islands to see a big cave. Then back to the boat for another big lunch. We took the bus to the train station and then took a train to Hue (heading southwards). I accidentally got a little drunk on the train but we all had a fun time messing about. They stopped serving beer at about 10 so me and John had to go and beg to get some more. I managed to sweet talk the guy into getting us some more :P [View Full Entry]

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After a quick stop in Hanoi we took a bus to the beautiful Halong Bay. We boarded our very posh boat at 12:30 and immediately had an amazing 3 course lunch of fish, prawns, crab. Our rooms were lovely with AC and a flat screen tv which only has 2 channels and lovely bathrooms. It was unfortunately raining most of the afternoon. Part of the group went kayaking around the bay. Me and Daisy stayed back and went for a very quick swim in the sea. It wasn't fun as there were loads of jelly fish in the water. The dinner [View Full Entry]

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Had a bad night's sleep but didnt mind as breakfast was unlimited pancakes with honey - yummy. We then left the homestay and completed our Sapa trek, walking past a beautiful waterfall. Went past the chinese border and then we took the evening train back to Hanoi. [View Full Entry]

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The breakfast at the mountain view was tiny :( not enough for me so I ordered and extra chocolate pancake which was great. We set off on our light trek through the rice fields at 9:30. During our whole walk the Sapa sales crew followed us. Which at some points were helpful as the path was very muddy and slippery and some people struggled. No one fell over which was lucky. At 12:30 we stopped for lunch by this time I was very hungry. During the next section of our walk we had to cross a river. A few people fell [View Full Entry]

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Woke at station on the night train with no warning at all. We had to dash quickly off the train which we weren't to happy about. We took a transfer bus to Sapa village and checked into the hotel. We went for a late lunch at the Chocolate restaurant which was delicious, even though we didn't have time to eat any of the chocolate as we had to go sightseeing. We visited a small village for the Red Hat tribe. Each of us were tagged with our own personal sales woman, who for a whole hour followed us around the village [View Full Entry]

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The breakfast was lovely, maybe even more so than normal as it was free! ( well, included in the hotel ) . I ate toast for the first time in months! The tour group was going to the Mossuleem which I had already seen, so John & Jeff, two guys from the group kindly let me tag along with them to go and see the Hanoi Hilton prison. The prison really showed the bad condition the prisoners lived/tortured in. There was a guillotine for the be-headings. There was also the US senator MCcain's old uniform and photos of his stay during [View Full Entry]

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Probably one of the first proper lazy days I have had in about 5 weeks. I packed and checked out of the HORRIBLE Prince 55 Hotel and spent the whole day eating coconut ice creams and lying next to a swimming pool. For 3 usd I treated myself to the entrance/use of the Army swimming pool which was about 2km from the old center. It was lovely and relaxing until about 3pm when the pool got so packed there was about 1 person per square meter. In the evening I went and met the Gap tour group which I will/would be [View Full Entry]

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Woke up sweating at 9am, wish I had a room with AC. It was about 30 degrees in my room and soo humid. Today was to be a very expensive day, with high entry prices at all the tourist sites I visited, oh well. Firstly I walked to the Temple of Literature. It was really pretty gardens, ponds and houses. It was the first university in Hanoi according to a guide I overheard. The temperature crept up and up. Outside I had my first sugar cane drink which was really good and very sweet (funny that being pure sugar) I walked [View Full Entry]

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