Hoi An

After leaving Hue as swiftly as we had arrived, we caught a rather poorly air conditioned bus to Hoi An. We had heard great reviews from a lot of travellers about Hoi An and ipon arrival we quickly realised that the main attraction of Hoi An is clothes. Suits, trousers, jeans, t-shirts; whatever clothes you want you can have custom made to fit in Hoi An. Tiffany quickly raked up a rather large bill but we managed to resist the urge to get a tailored suit.

A few miles outside the city we quickly came across what we had heard were the best beaches in vietnam and we weren't disappointed. We spent the best part of two days just relaxing on the golden sand or floating through the warm sea. It was a very welcome break from our very hectic schedule over the last week or so. We also managed to find another football match to demonstrate to the locals how football SHOULD be played. At least until we landed oursleves with a couple of grusome foot injuries.

We had also heard rumours of a pretty good nighlife in Hoi An, which we sampled on a couple of occasions and found it was great, if not a little overpriced. We on two seperate nights ran into past friends from our travels; firstly we found Seth from our Sa Pa trip in the "Same Same not Different" bar before running into Brad, who was on our Ha Long Bay trip, in the very same "Same Same not Different" bar.

Tonight we're catching an overnight bus to Nha Trang, where we'll probably stay for one or two nights.

Tom

Hue

Luckily this is only a very short entry, I have had to three in a row and am running out of stamina. Hue is very much on the backpacker route, but everyone we met told us how the ancient citadel and pogada are the only really things really worth seeing. Thatin mind we took a 14 hour sleeper bus and arrived in Hue at 8.30, then got back on the bus that afternoon to take us to Hoi an.
The sleeper bus I must say could have been worse, however the poster promised 'large and luxurious toilet'-there was no toilet. It also promised 'american suspension so bus always inbalance'. The beds were effectively double beds and I had to share with a german guy with no sense of humour at all. Having said all that, 12 hours passed relatively quickly.
Now we are in hoi an, a pretty small town, and it will be toms turn on the blog next.
Alex

Ha Long Bay

For those of you who watched 'that top gear episode' ha long bay is where they turned their bikes into boats, basicaly loads of rocky islands just off the coast. The only real way to get there is as a day trip from hanoi so we returned from sapa and booked ourselves onto the next 3 day tour of ha long bay. While the food was a tad repetetive the trip turned out to be really good fun with some other fun backpackers to drink with and to joke with. On the second evening we found some guy on the street selling homebrew beer for 5,000 dong a glass, that might sound a lot, but it is actualy about 15p!
For those readers who came with us to europe last summer, Tom and I made and enemy in Ha long bay. We met the campest german man I have ever seen, he was from munich and on hearing we enjoyed the hoffbrauerhaus he declared 'it is smelly and dirty, and I dont even like the decor, its not even that traditional ya', a quote tom and I have been having endless fun repeating.
Next onto the ancient city of Hue..
Alex

Sapa

Sapa is a small town in the mountains north of Hanoi. It is surrounded by hundreds of ethnic minority villages, mainly with chinese routes. We caught 9 hour train at 10 oclock from hanoi with new friend Seth, a 6"5" canadian in tow. Having made the rookie error of choosing a 'soft seat' for the train ride none of us of got any sleep that night, I found it cramped and stuffy, spare a thought for poor Seth who is yet to find a doorway he can get through without stooping.

The train did not actualy take us all the way to sapa but to nearby town 'loa cai', so we found a minibus who promised to take us direct to sapa. Unfortunately there is not such thing as a minibus with spare seats in Vietnam so we circled the town looking for potential passengers untill not only were there no free seats, but noone in the bus could feasably move an inch.

The hour drive had a few highpoints such as seeing another bus full of tourists embeded in the cliff face, and the several p0ints where the poor overloaded bus was but seconds from giving up.

After spending a night in sapa it was time to leave on our respective trecksl. Tom, Seth and myself had opted for a 2 day treck with a homestay while tiffany had a trip to an ethnic minority village followed by a day treck.

Anyway I am waffling, the reason to visit sapa are the amazing views so with a quick mention to trekking buddies heather rosanne and lydia I move on to the photos.

Alex

Hanoi

We can now join vets and say that we've been to 'Naam. Our welcome to Hanoi consisted of a fairly grubby infra-red in ear thermometer being pushed into our ears, swine flu is becoming rather irritating to say the least. We, with the help of the airport security found a reliable taxi company that took us to our hotel. There was a noticeable rise in comfort and vast drop in fun in the hotel compared to a hostel. We had our first taste of street food which was very cheap even considering the fact that we were ripped off. After a great night sleep we decided to move to a much more social hostel that had pretty good facilities including a BBQ on the roof.

After we settled in, we headed out to explore and quickly located "Lenin Park" where Alex and i challenged the locals to some football. There was no arguements who were the better players, even if it did cost us the skin on our feet and a couple of toenails. We then drank coconuts by the side of Thein Quang Lake, awesome!!!!
Yesterday we decided, after getting drenched when the heavans opened, that Tiffany deserved a shopping trip and were delighted to try out a bit of battering and we didn't do too badly but i'm sure our skills will improve. Alex then purchased a great pair of "bose" headphones.

Last night we signed up for "Snake Village" where we first handled snakes before they were slaughterd in preperation for a numerous course meal. The highlights were drinking shots of snake blood complete with heart meat and snake bile (and you thought snake bite was a drink...) which were liquid courage for the four or five courses of snake meat, each prepared in a different way. Then the snake wine (although it tasted and was the strength as whiskey" began to flow. Bad move.

Today we all felt very delicate and so we took it easy, visiting the temple of literature which was very relaxing, after which we grapped dinner which we managed to drag out for an hour or two; The restaurant had air con.... We're just about to jump on a train up to Sa Pa where we're hoping to do some trekking and finnaly discover which of the three of us has the most appropriate footwhere (i hope it's me :D).

Tom

Singapore

What is there to say about Singapore, seemingly it is made up of little india, chinatown and the arab district. Getting between them is easy enough on an MRT (mass rapid transport) that puts our tube to shame. Our hostel was just on the edge of little india, where all the hostels are. It had only been open just over a month, the beds were soft enough, the TV was bigger than at home and the slightly podgy guy running the place was happy to chat inbetween giving away red bean ice cream lolly pops, and organising playstation tournaments. All in all a pretty decent place.

On Monday Tom and I had an epic battle in the art of 'Power smash3' in the arcade, We drew a huge crowd and there was much (imaginary) applause when I finaly prevailed in the tiebreak. My next challenger was a 15 year old singaporean with freakishly quick hands, I was suitably embarrassed.

The rough guide to south east asia describes eating as 'one of the undeniable pleasures of singapore'. I have to say I agree. Food is of course the most important aspect of any stay and the selection of indian, chinese and malay food was very much to my liking.

All too soon we had to wave goodbye to our new friends Scotty Zee, Jess and Adrian, plus Lisa who couldnt even be bothered to wait around to say goodbye (im not at all bitter).

While sitting in singapore's 'budget terminal' we had a grand total of s$2 (about 80p) to spend. We occupied ourselves making brass rubbings of places in singapore. They really shoud provide that quality of entertainment in Heathrow.

Now we are Hanoi (where we met a slighty jaded Tiffany,who we were SO excited about seeing because she is a little bit awesome(thanks for your input tiffany, always appreciated)) and the chaos has stepped up three notches.
In the next few days we will either be off to the mountains, or the beach but for now, over and out.
Alex

Are we nearly there yet?

Yes, in fact we've arrived. After leaving our respective parents teary-eyed at security at Gatwick, we swiftly boarded our shiny Emirates plane ready to start our voyage. The flight was fairly uneventful, helped along by a good choice of films and music as well as the 5* cuisine (ish). After a short stop in Dubai, where neither of us had any money, we boarded our connecting flight to Singapore and i think the magnitude of the trip actually started to hit home. We landed slightly early in Singapore and, other then certain questions being raised about someone's trip to Argentina, we passed through customs quickly and found ourselves finding room for our bags on the train. Our first hostel is pretty cool, except maybe the rather...old fashioned... toilet (to put it one way.) Feeling rather exhausted from our journey we took it easy this afternoon, strolling around the streets and into the various shops and "flea" markets before heading back towards the hostel stopping off for a very modestly priced supper. Plans for the rest of our time in Singapore...SLEEP!!! 

Tom

1 day to go, Tom and I leave TOMORROW