Vietnam

Right here we go, deep breath.............

We had planned to take the epic bus from Vientiene to Hanoi but after chatting to a few people we decided to take the more expensive option and fly like high rollers. We booked the tickets and within 2 hours we were 30,000ft above Laos and heading for Vietnam.

It seems like a lifetime ago that we were deep in the Thai jungle trekking but that thought was soon brought back to reality when in the seat in front of us were the dutch couple Leoni and Martjin. We now understood that we would bump in to the same people again and again so we traded stories and enjoyed the easiest flight ever.

Gooooooooooooood afternoon Vietnam!!! (yes I actually said that as we landed) We scrambled in to a minibus full of tourists and headed for Central Hanoi.......... Honk Honk bllody Honk! That was the first and last memory of Hanoi, well most of Vietnam it seems. There doesn't seem to be any logical traffic system in place in Vietnam and Hanoi clearly displayed this. The traffic was something to just sit back and embrace, hundreds of motorbikes scream past with inches to spare. We just sat in amazement and watched with our mouths wide open.

We were dropped off at St Andrews church and walked for 2 minutes when we bumped in to another couple we met (Orrin and Emily - an Aussie couple who traveled with us in Laos for about a week). We dived in to Hanoi Central Backpackers and raced to find the best bed in a 16 bed dorm.

Hanoi is crazy busy but amazing to watch which is what we did from the roof of a bar overlooking one of the main junctions in the city center. The following night we hit the water puppets, yes this does sound as strange as it actually was to sit there for an hour and watch puppets race around a pond. The following day and we started the first of our many 13 hour night buses, fist stop was Hue and this was soon to be one of the funniest places so far.

We stopped at Hue early morning and headed straight for a guest house that had been recommended to us. We dropped off the bags and decided this is where we would hire out mopeds - this has got danger written all over it!

Bikes arrive and everyone shotguns the one's with the cool racing stripes, this left Dale with the rather large flower print girls bike. We have a quick lesson and then head off in to the danger zone. Not more than two seconds have past and Dale is in the middle of the road with half the bike on one side looking back at us. Not far off a Jeremy Clarkson lookalike this had to be the single most funny experience we all had since going away, ok we dodged snakes and took on dog season but this was hilarious! The rest of the day was fine bar some minor petrol station crash (Olly) but we all survived and can't wait for the next session of moped madness.

We then endured our next night bus to Hoi An which is the world capital for suit shops. We only spent the day there and headed on the next 13 hour bus ride down to Na Trang.

Na Trang - We checked in to our guest house at 9ish so had most of the day to explore. The beach was no more than 30m from our reception so we stayed stuck on the beach working on our super tans for 7 days - the dream! The local night life was amazing and we mingled with the locals and danced the night away at Sailors Club with hands full with buckets (buckets for anyone that doesn't know (mum) are a small sandcastle like bucket filled with Vodka and a tiny dash of orange). We met Bret and Beth an Aussie couple and hung out with them for most of the night - good laugh, and hope to meet them again in Oz.

Our second to last night at Na Trang was the highlight as Sailors Club were throwing a big beach party. Hands full of beer - we spent the night dancing with a group of Aussie girls we met, Clare, Dee (pole dancer- get in) and Carla. It wasn't long before a dance off broke out but was soon dominated with the Russian Dance, and for good measure a quick tea pot to finish it off, 1-0 to England!

Sigon - Another epic 12 hours on the bus and we hit the busy city of Sigon (HCM) where we chilled for 3 days and did the touristy stuff. We spent the best part of one day at the War museum learning about the Vietnam war which was a real eye opener. Next stop is Cambodia and a quick 4 hour bus ride to the border for visas took up most of the day, bring on Cambodia!