They don't have peanut butter, they have that veggie spread!

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So its been quite a while since we've wrote and we've been very busy!

Our train journey down to Da Nang was long, cold and not very comfy at all but as soon as we were there we made it easily to nearby Hoi An (although our taxi driver stopped at marble mountains on the way and we refused to get out the car) and found a cheap little hostel for 8 us dollars a room... however we were out on the roof in a little shack and the bathroom was 6 floors down, not great when you wake up needing the loo in the middle of the night! We wandered the old town, which is all lit up at night, with music playing and little shops and resturants all along the river and had dresses made for us for only 20 dollars each. After a couple of nights however we were ready to move on and decided to get the overnight train to Nha Trang that night. After checking out of our hotel we decided to have a last look around the town, as we walked down one of the streets someone on a motorbike shouted out to us... It was John who we had been travelling with before! We hung out with him and 2 girls he had met for a few hours before he decided he and Dennis would come on the train with us instead. We found Dennis and headed to Da Nang station only to find the overnight trains were fully booked and we would have to travel the following day. We checked into a hotel in Da Nang (we originally went to one John's book suggested, only to find it was gone!) it was the cheapest one we could find and didnt look great, however once inside we found we each had a double bed, really nice rooms and an ensuite bathroom.. with a bath! It was our first bath in 6 weeks and we were so happy! That night we had some food and headed into a huge club, only to find we were the only customers and there was about 50 members of staff, it was very strange and Dennis was convinced it was mafia run and made us leave. We headed to a smaller bar, where Dennis being Dutch tried to convince us all the history we had learnt was wrong, and some very strange conspiricy theories! We rose early and got a little table with 4 seats on our train, it was a 10 hour journey and the seats were hard wood! We played a ridiculous number of card games, ate a lot of food and were delighted when we finally arrived... hot weather at last!

We made a new friend from New Zealand called Shane and went to dinner with him and then on to the why not bar, we danced a lot and had a few buckets and eventually things turned sour between the group and Shane. He told us he didnt want to go home for one of his best friends wedding and John got very angry at this and we decided it was time to take him home! (we didnt see Shane again)

The next day we lay on the beach all day, the weather was amazing and we all caught a tan. The boys went out in the evening and we slept from about 9pm to 9am, all that lying around had made us tired! The next day we just hit the beach again and then got the overnight bus to Hoi Chi Minh City. However we were due to arrive at 7am... but got a flat tire at midnight that held us up 5 hours! We arrived grumpy and in pain from cramped sleeping conditions! We found a hostel ran by a lady with 7 cats (one of which wore a dress?!) which we thought was cute... untill one pissed on our stuff! But it was cheap and we could all share the room which was fun. The boys wanted to do cultural stuff so we agreed to go to a museum.. which just happened to be in a zoo! We timed it well, when we arrived the museum was shut for lunch so we made them go to the zoo with us, it cost 30p to get in and you could get close to animals, we stroked a giraffe! (no one was brave enough to try and stroke the ostrich!) we went to the museum after which wasnt very exciting, the best bit was a mummy, but there was too much pottery for us! We went to the war museum after which actually was interesting and we were glad we did it! We had several massages and a facial, although our peaceful massage was interupted by the grunts of the man next to us who then arranged to meet the massuese later! Very suspicious! We didnt go out much at night, we had a computer in our room so stayed in and watched Michael Mcintyre, listened to music and got very cheap manicures and pedicures! On our final day we visited the Cu Chi tunnels, which was fun, although we crawled through one for 15 minutes which was designed for 4ft vietnamese and not english girls plus bags! We also got to shoot a gun and look at all the booby traps (plus sing on the backseat of the bus, best bit!) As we headed back on the bus we realised we were cutting it fine for our taxi to the airport but we would just make it... until the bus pulled over and we realised we had another flat tyre! We quickly hailed a taxi and made it back in time! We said goodbye to Dennis (John decided to follow us) and flew to Bangkok (Amelia was asleep before take off). On the recomendation of Vicky we headed to Nats Guesthouse where we got a 3 bed room fairly cheap for Khosan Road. We headed straight out saying we wouldnt drink much...

We made a new friend straight away, an english girl called Ariel (real name Ellie) whos friend was too sick to come out. After a bucket we headed to a ping pong show (when in Rome as John constantly says!)... it was a rip off and very rubbish, as girls we werent expecting to enjoy it, but even John was dissapointed. Only one girl actually used ping pongs, and couldnt even get them in the bucket! We headed back to Khoasan to a club where we took off our shoes to dance, and someone immeadiately smashed their glass (convinced it was on purpose!.. Back on with the shoes 😞 ) When the club closed Amelia headed to 7 11 to buy biscuits and water thinking we were heading home... but came out to find Lily dancing in the street and everyone with drinks in their hand! The outside party (consisiting of Lily, a woman and her daughter and a random swedish man) lasted until 5am when John and Amelia finally dragged her home, and left her by the toilet (she was fine in the end). We went to MBK the next day, a massive shopping mall, which was basically a rip off! Although we got a cheap blackberry (if anyone has whatsapp or bbm send us your number!). That night we had an early night after a quick visit to Chinatown, which wasnt great. (highlight being a scrappy dog pooing in the middle of very heavy traffic) The following morning we said goodbye to John and went shopping for the day, we were stalked by a creepy man in a green top, even shop owners noticed and said they didnt think he was a good man.. we ran for the safety of mcdonalds! We decided to make an effort for our last night in Asia and wore some makeup and headed out to a rooftop bar with live music (until the powercut) we made a new friend called Tom from Grimsby who was an ex marine, and after chatting for 10 minutes persuaded him to come get a tattoo with us (sorry Tina and Linda!) he got (on our insistance) a little elephant on his wrist, which is the logo for chang beer (he already had the strongbow logo tattooed), and you'll have to wait to see ours! It was a good way to finish the night, we went and called Kate and headed home. The following morning we hung out at the airport for a long time and then flew to Melbourne (Lily thought it would be a good idea to wear a top saying Kiss Me through airport security.. it wasnt! i was wearing a top saying same same and they thought i was asking for kisses too!) We went to Greville street and unfortunetly they had overbooked, so said could we share a double bed, and pay for only one person, we were delighted! Although it had a single bunk on top (on the first night our roomate bought a guy back, on the second night she never returned!). We decided we cant afford to go out drinking in Aus (its so expensive) so have had many chilled nights in. We've now moved to St Kilda (via trams, one of which crashed into a 4x4!) and are right on the beach. Tomorrow we start the Great Ocean Road tour for a couple of days and then head for Sydney, after we go all up the east coast to Cairns, all accomadation and buses booked and sorted! We're leaving Aus 2 weeks early so we have more time in South America (which should also be cheaper!). Melbourne is very beautiful, but not always that warm, we're hoping for hotter temperatures the further up we go!



xoxo

Amelia & Lily

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