Vietnam

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So, we spent 12ish days in Vietnam. Some of the highlights:
We crossed the border and spent some time in a town called Vinh. Never ever visit this place. I don't think they get many tourists here and took offence to what Lynsay was wearing (a vest top and trousers) and decided to slap her shoulders. Anyway, fortunately we were only there for a few hours before our night train departed to Hanoi. The train was very cosy - six in one cabin!

We had a city hour of Hanoi, visiting the war museum (aka Hanoi Hilton where John McCain was prisoner), the Uncle Ho Mausoleum and the One Pillar Pagoda.

Hanoi people absolutely love the horns on their cars / mopeds / tuk tuks. You would not believe the noise they made. The only problem is after a while, you become accustomed and start ignoring it, almost getting run over in the process...

We took an over night boat trip to Halong Bay (I think this is where Top Gear may have visited when they went to Vietnam??) Unfortunately the weather was crap which resulted in five of us drinking three bottles of vodka to pass the time. Lynsay was very poorly the next day...

Next we got another night train to Hue where we visited the Citadel and took a boat down the Perfume River to a pagoda. We took a ride on a moped through the Hue countryside seeing some beautiful countryside. May got her palm read by an old Vietnamese lady (apparently she's going to be an alcoholic when she's 55!!) We visited a couple of sites where they made incense and Vietnamese hats and the Tomb of Tu Duc. As we were driving through the streets we high-fived all the children as they left school!

Our next stop was Hoi An where our hotel had a swimming pool. We rented some bikes and cycled to China Beach which was brilliant (I think the cocktails helped!) Lynsay got a tattoo on her foot.

Next we were in Nha Trang where we took an island tour and did some snorkelling - we saw a big blue starfish. Had another motorbike ride and visited an orphanage, taking some toys for the children with us. All hell broke loose when May decided to give them a kite - one little girl screamed and screamed and screamed until she got it! We also had a mud bath.

Our last stop in Vietnam was Saigon. We visited a market where we were 'attacked' by the vendors, holding on to us until we agreed to buy something! We had a massage by some blind people - four of us went and we all had completely different massages, some of which involved massaging the top lip, eyebrows and eyelashes...

We also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Our last night in Vietnam was quite a drunken affair, with a large number of cocktails consumed (again!)

Some pictures...

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