The Wheels on the bus go Round and Round and Round and Round ...

We think this blog is actually shorter than any others, as we haven't really done anything for 2 days, apart from sit on a bus! So you shouldn't need too many cups of tea or coffee to get you through this one!

WEDNESDAY 2nd May

After blogging you, we went back to the hotel and had a wonderfully refreshing shower - it's amazing how human it makes you feel again! Then we met up with Chris, Kim, Claudia and Nok for dinner and we went to a bar/cafe. When we got back to the hotel we bumped into Luke, Harry and Eric who were about to go bowling, so we tagged along too. Only 6 of us ended bowling and Steve and I lost terribly! But Steve's bowling technique was something to marvel at (it had me in stitches at times)! After our thrashing we decided to head back to the hotel again, as we had an early start the next day.

THURSDAY 3rd May

Steve got a bit frustrated this morning. Before breakfast he decided to pop out to go to the book-swap-shop and to the bakery. However, just like last night, the bookshop was still closed, but he did get a banana loaf from the bakery for us to snack on on the long bus ride ahead of us. So we sat and had breakfast together and whilst I finished getting our things ready, Steve decided to try the bookshop one last time - but he came back defeated, as it was still closed! He was a bit disappointed, so we've now got to keep our eyes open for a book-swap-shop! After all this running around, it was time to meet in the foyer with our mountains of bags and get the minibus loaded up. We were soon on our 7 hour bus journey to Lak Sao. It was a pretty uneventful journey, ambling along the roads with beautiful mountain views. We stopped for a couple of 'happy breaks' (loo stops to you and me) and also stopped for lunch at a noodle bar. We finally made it to Lak Sao in the middle of a torrential rainstorm - yay, the start of the rainy season is upon us! After dumping our bags we traipsed down the road to the only restaurant in Lak Sao. It wasn't fantastic and it was a tad overpriced, but it was edible none-the-less! Then it was back to the hotel for an early night, as we had to be up at 06.00 the next morning.

FRIDAY 4th May

We were up at 06.00 this morning and by 07.30 we were on the bus and starting our 10 hour journey to Hanoi, Vietnam! After an hour or so we hit the border and piled into customs/immigration control to have our passports checked. It took a while to do, as there were already people waiting and one of our group had managed to get their passport wet at some point and so immigration were reluctant to let them through! But some smooth talking from Nok meant we were finally on our way and joining up with a new driver who would take us the rest of the way to Hanoi. Now, we thought that the Chinese roads were bad, but the Vietnamese are just plain scary! They undertake the most nail-biting manoeuvres and only just manage to finish them with about a hairs-width to spare! Trust me, don't go on the roads in Vietnam if you have a nervous disposition! After a few 'happy breaks', a stop for lunch and a few almost squished cyclists, we were pulling up outside our hotel for the next few nights (ironically called the Victory hotel) - it only took us almost 12 hours to get there! We had dinner at a noodle bar near by and then collapsed into bed!

SATURDAY 5th May

Today was a fairly easy day. We started off having breakfast at Koto - where they take underprivileged young people and train them to be chefs (kind of like what Jamie Oliver did in the UK) and it was really nice. So after stuffing ourselves on the buffet Nok took us to the old quarter and then left us to our own devices. Steve and I started off at the huge market. It was a bit disappointing really, as we were hoping that there would be lots of traditional craft things there, but there were just tons of mass-produced souvenirs and a massive haberdashery. So we went to have a walk around a lake in the centre of the old quarter and also visited the temple in the centre of the lake as well. We then went to the Temple of Literature, which was really nice to wander around, but unfortunately the exhibitions were only in Vietnamese, so we didn't always know what was going on! But there were some plaques with information on elsewhere and so we got the general gist of what was going on! After having a wander around, on the way back to the hotel, we popped into CraftLink, run as a non-profit organisation which sells traditional Vietnamese crafts etc at fair prices. Unfortunately there weren't a huge amount of things there that we could have bought, but we did treat ourselves to an incredibly beautiful photo album. Once back at the hotel we popped in the shower and then came and blogged! We're off to the water puppet show in about 20 minutes and then off out to dinner and tomorrow the first half of the tour finishes - we lose 5 people (including our guide) and gain 5 new people (including a new guide) who will join us for the last 2 weeks through China and Hong Kong!

Hope everyone is well and as usual missing you all - suffering from homesickness again, so feeling a little bit flat, but I'll get over it again soon!

Sammy - we've tried rambustan and we do like it very much - along with the mangostein! Hi to everyone in Bangor too!