It was Friday afternoon when we arrived in Vang Vieng and we caught a tuk tuk to Champalaos bungalows with Jiles who we met in Phonsavan, it was recommended to us by some girls we also met there. They are cute bungalows and ours is right next to the river with fantastic views in each direction, beauty! On our first day we didn't really do much, but in the evening we went to a bar with a large fire. No sooner had we got there we saw the Bristol boys (Charlie, Pete, Rich and Zig) and later we also bumped into [View Full Entry]

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Our flight was delayed by an hour which wasn't bad, which gave me time to look around the shops in the airport for a few more souvenirs from Vietnam. Despite Hanoi being the capital and an international airport it was tiny. Our plane was small too, probably holding 78 people, however there was only 28 on board and all but 2 were westerners... We landed in Luang Prabang to find we were the only aeroplane there, and the airport itself was smaller than a supermarket! You could see the bag carrousel from the immigration stand and to be honest my bedroom [View Full Entry]

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We are back in Hanoi for our last day in Vietnam. Our train arrived in the station on Saturday morning, well more like Friday night as it was 4am. As you can imagine no where was open so we walked the familiar route from the station to the Old City. We sat next to the lake for over an hour, Erica danced around and I did a bit of aerobics to keep warm. We fitted in well as there were lots of locals stretching and doing something similar to yoga. At 6.30am we finally managed to get a hot cup of [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Lao Cai train station at 5.30am on Thursday and soon found a minibus to take us to Sapa, however we were asked to wait 20 minutes for the next train as we were the only ones on the bus. It was 7am by the time we left and 8am when we actually arrived in Sapa. We were taken to a hotel to look at which was really nice and cheap so we decided to stay there. The weather was so cold we could see our own breath and the whole town was covered in fog, so we decided [View Full Entry]

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We left Hanoi on Monday and headed Haylong bay for a 2 night boat trip. We saw Peter and Charlie at the services on the way (they were also doing a boat trip) and it turned out they did get lost (whatever!). We arrived at the port to find millions of boats and people everywhere. The boys as it happens ended up on the same boat as us, but the lucky buggers got to see a celebrity on the pier... only Cliff Richard (Oh my days!). We must have walked straight past him, God knows what he was doing in the [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Hanoi on Saturday afternoon after a 16 hour train journey. The minute we stepped off the train we were attacked by people wanting us to stay in their hotel or to go in their taxi and after a long journey I was having none of it. To the extent I just kept walking on saying NO! But as we were leaving the station I hadn't noticed two women checking peoples tickets, I thought they we hustling me like everyone else so attempted to walk past them saying no. Only to find they blocked my way and didn't appear [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Hue on Thursday afternoon and had no problem finding somewhere to stay. The place we had read about was full but the gentleman there recommended the place across the road which was cheap and appeared clean. On greater inspection the room was damp and was home to numerous mosquitoes. We made our way to The Imperial City, stopping at a cafe run by a deaf and dumb man we had read about in footprints. The food was ok but the service wasn't all that, only kidding! We were served by his daughter who can hear and speak although [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Hoi An first thing on Tuesday morning, in the rain, to find the place totally deserted. We had spent the previous night on a bus so once we were checked in we went back to bed for several hours and didn't resurface until the afternoon, to find it was still raining! We headed out anyway and found a busy little place full of shops, mainly tailors then lots of souvenoir shos, with absolutely wonderful gifts, that Erica and I just could not resist. We ended up getting a tailor made suit (trousers and a skirt) and an asian [View Full Entry]

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We arried midday on Sunday with an idea of where to stay, which was just a 5 minute walk from where the bus dropped us off. It was quite windy and the waves were really crashing now on the beach, so no diving yet for me, god damn! We met Adam in the evening for and had something to eat and drink with him. Found a really cheap bar which sold a litre of local good beer for 12,000 dong (about 40p). On Monday we did a city tour, which was pants. We got picked up at 8am and was supposed [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Da Lat on Thursday evening and once we had found somewhere to stay we went out to eat. We went to a French place that we had read about and tried there home made strawberry wine, which was so sweet even my nana wouldn't like it! On Thursday we walked around the town, we bought some breakfast from a local bakery and then headed to the lake in the centre of town to eat it. We then headed to the flower gardens and on the way we saw a naked man at the side of the lake doing [View Full Entry]

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