Chiang Mai & Kanchanaburi

The journey to Chiang Mai came with a 4 hour stop over on the border town of Udon Thani, which wouldn't normally be a problem but as we walked through the town to find some food, we quickly realised that not many foreigners end up in this part of town as nothing was in English. How very ignorant of us to assume it would be! We decided to brave it and sat down in a 'restaurant' and while trying to make sense of the Thai menu, the owner approached us and simply said "chicken soup?" - we politely accepted and unfortunately it was not a great choice as it tasted like dish water and the chicken in it was very questionable. We left it, paid up and headed to 7-11 for a trusty cheese toastie - very cultured.

The rest of the journey was fairly straight forward, and after being taken to around a hundred absolute dives, we found Paradise. Unfortunately, Paradise it wasn't but it would have to do. We had so much planned for our time in Chiang Mai and not much time to do it in so we straight away booked on to a Thai cookery course for that evening at Galangal Cooking Studio. Our teachers were Aoy and Max and they were brilliant and so funny. With them, we learnt to make five dishes but first took a trip to the market to buy the ingredients. 

Aoy took us around showing us all the ingredients, telling us what we could use in England for alternatived and it seemed like she was some kind of local celebrity at the market as all the owners were laughing at her trying to put her off - either that or they were laughing at us, something we have grown accustom to. We headed back and started with making a chicken in coconut milk soup, then a pad thai, spring rolls and then the green curry paste to finally make the green curry. The food was so good (even if we do say so ourselves) and we got to eat everything we made! Not that any of us managed to eat it all but at least we know now what it should taste like. I feel like most people that own a restaurant in Asia should go to this place as some of the food we have has is really not great! How can you muck up a chicken fried rice?! Is a question we have had to ask too many times on this trip already.

Both the teachers made us all feel really at home and had a laugh with everyone so it made everyone relax although it was quite funny that Aoy was rushing off after the class to eat in the French restaurant around the corner. Maybe the grass is always greener? 

There are a lot of different cooking classes but we definitely chose the right one and we have already recommended them to others.

The next day we were up early to go to Mahout training. A Mahout is the traditional word for someone who looks after, trains and rides elephants. Of course, we had heard many horror stories about the different places you could go, and I myself have seen a horrible 'elephant camp' where they were all wearing hard seats and were lined up ready for tourists to ride so we really took our time to research where was best. We had found that they best one to go to was Baanchang Elephant Park but unfortunately they were fully booked for days (the reviews must have been right) so we booked on to Yogi Mahout Training which we hoped would be just as good. We set off first to our training centre where we were all given excercise balls to pretend were our elephants. 

Really realistic, right?! Here, they taught us the commands of go and stop, and how to make the elephant turn. Of course I had forgotten the commands as soon as we got back in the van so that was a great start. We headed to a fruit market to buy our elephants some bananas and headed to the camp where we were given our traditional Mahout outfits. The actual Mahouts were dressed in normal clothes, jeans and t-shirts so I'm not quite sure how we ended up looking like this:

Anyway, in our new get up, we set off to meet the elephants. We spent time feeding them and learning their names and ages before it was time to get up on them. Now, I knew that they would be big, but the enormity of them doesn't hit you until you're stood next to one thinking 'how the hell am I going to get up there?!'. As I was stood thinking about this very question, one of the elephants decided to whip its ear back and hit me right in the eye. The girls heard a very loud slapping sound and were met by me holding my streaming eye - ouch! After struggling to get on the elephant the way everyone else was - i'll blame that on being short.... mine had to crouch down so I could climb on to its neck which is the place most comfortable. We rode around a short loop to practice our commands, luckily a real Mahout walked around with you to direct the elephant as I had still forgotten them, dispite being told them again! Riding on these huge animals was unbelievably scary, everytime it moved I felt like I was about to be catapulted off of the front. 

As you can see by my face here, I couldn't hide my panic - and i'd even managed to pick the smallest elephant! 

Just to kill some time I assume, we learnt how to make a papaya salad each and then headed for our actual lunch. After this, we had the chance to ride the elephants around the jungle and take them for a swim and wash in the river. This time I sat on the back of the elephant while Leanne sat at the front and even though I felt a bit more secure it was so painful!! You could feel every movement and my legs hurt for days afterwards. We had a mother and its baby so everytime the baby started to go off of the path, the mum would start to run after it, so we were constantly holding on for our lives pleading for the baby to stay with us!

The best part of the day was getting in the river with them and giving them a good wash as they looked so content. Even though this place was so much better than some of them we had seen, you do feel bad for them although it seems we, and many other people do not have enough moral highground to leave and riding an elephant is too hard to say no to. 

The next day, we decided to keep up our animal theme and head to the Tiger Kingdom where we chose to see some baby tigers. These are between two and four months old and were so cute. We decided to pass on seeing the larger tigers as they are HUGE and pretty scary. If one of them went for you, then you would definitely loose at least a limb.

Other than that, I really enjoyed Chiang Mai in general. It is a really pretty place and has a lot to do. We decided to sack off going on another trek as previously planned because we were all shattered so this was the perfect time to throw away our walking boots which were taking up valuable souvenir space in our bags! We headed to a few markets and the night bazaar which is unlike anything i've ever seen. It was the largest market we've seen with lights and music and the sellers have actually learnt that if they sell something different to the stalls next to them then they are more likely to make a sale - who would have thought?! 

Our next stop on the journey down south was Kanchanaburi, home to the bridge over the River Kwai. We settled in to another strip of bars in a little hut settled on the river and went to explore. We got a Tuk Tuk in to the town anddidn't find much there apart from a few everything shops so we headed back and decided that of course we needed to sample the night life so headed out for a 'few beers' in a bar and to play pool. We quickly found a couple of friends to carry the night on with and our few beers ended up with getting drunk for 10 Baht (20p) and swinging back a forth on a wrecking ball to the sound of Miley Cyrus.

The next day we headed to the JEATH War Museum which told a little about the bridge over the River Kwai and the death railway, named this due to the amount of people killed whilst building it and then walked down to watch the train cross. I was a little disappointed as for some reason I was expecting a steam train but it was still pretty cool to see and also to walk along the bridge. We wanted to ride the train, but when the conductor told us the first stop was two hours away, we thought better of it and headed back ready for our bus to Bangkok ready for our south islands tour.

 

Hi Laos, bye Laos

We have spent the last two months absolutely dreading the 31 hour bus journey from Hanoi to Vang Vieng in Laos and have brought it up on every bus journey - "Laos will be 3/4/5/6 times as long as this so quit moaning". As the day of the journey was getting closer, we met a lovely girl in our dorm who had just done the journey the opposite way. After hearing her awful account and her saying that if she had the choice to pay £100 for a flight or do it again, she would pay..... we bought a flight! One short hour in the air and we had landed in Vientiane, the capital. 

As we didn't have much time, we were straight in to a four hour taxi which took us to Vang Vieng, known for the infamous activity of tubing. We arrived on the Vang Vieng 'strip' at about 8pm, with nowhere to stay. We keep meaning to book accommodation before arriving in our next location as it is such a pain in the arse but of course, we never do. The strip seemed lively with a chilled vibe as a lot of the bars were playing friends and had beds for seats - I already liked it. We were quickly approached by a promo girl with glitter all over her face who pointed to her bar "come and join us, we are the best place in the town to buy drugs - weed, opium, whatever you want". Welcome to Laos!

We finally found somewhere to stay and the next day decided to rent some bicycles (still not ready to get back on a moped) and headed off in search of the Blue Lagoon, which is meant to be a beautiful attraction. We followed the map and cycled the 7km, which doesn't sound too bad but the roads were so muddy and bumpy and at some points we had to get off the bikes and walk them barefoot through the deep mud / cow poo infested water. We finally came across the sign for 'Blue Lagoon' so we locked up our bikes and walked the 1km to where there were some locals ready to take your 10,000 kip entrance fee. We were expecting this so didn't really think anything of it and paid. We walked the remainder of the way down and found a muddy river that looked nothing like the pictures and wasn't even a pool of water. After walking a little futher, we realised that we had definitely been mugged off and decided to head back to the locals. Lisa was the most unimpressed and walked ahead to ask for our money back. 10,000 kip is just under £1 - but thats not the point. The oldest local was quick to run off in to the bushes and leave the three children who were laughing at us. They realised that it was risky to leave the money they were betting with in the middle of their table so one got up and ran off with it. In what can only be described as 'not her finest hour', Lisa (in a rage) threw a slingshot at the kids who were still waiting and went on to shove their moped over on to the floor. We quickly got back to our bikes worrying that some of the Laos mafia were going to come and kill us and kept cycling until we found the real Blue Lagoon:

Well, it was the authentic one and we recognised it from the pictures (like this one above from google) but it was a really horrible shade of BROWN. I'm not sure if it was because of the weather or if the online pictures are horrendously photoshopped but either way, after the drama of the day, we were very annoyed. We didn't even bother going in, grabbed a drink and then paid a tuk tuk driver to take us, and our bikes home.

The next day we decided it was time for tubing! We had a 'big tubing breakfast' which involved a beer and a free shot of vodka - a great way to start an all day drinking session. We set off in search of a tube and had to sign another waiver. We keep doing activities where you have to sign to say you wont die, and if you do you die, then you wont sue them. I usually just sign them straight away but this one worried me more than most. You had to tick 'yes' to being a confident swimmer, and I am definitely not - even sober. But, needless to say, I still ticked yes and hoped to god I wouldn't drunkenly drown (thankfully, i'm still here to tell the tale). We got in a tuk tuk who took us and our tubes up to the start point and met two friends from Israel who we ended up spending the whole day with. You get dropped at the first bar which was pretty busy already. They were playing some great music, had lots of games set up and just generally had a good vibe. So good that we ended up staying for two hours - playing (and winning) beer pong, drinking, and one of us vomming. We did a birthday shotgun for the bar man and decided it was time to get in the water... what was I saying about drowning?! 

As we were floating down the river, we started to hear some faint music and as we got closer we heard  some S Club 7 blasting out from the next bar. Then, the workers throw in ropes for you to grab on toand  then pull you on to the river bank and up to the next bar. This one was just as full, the had basket ball, played cheesy music and gave you a free bracelet with every drink. As a backpacker, anything free makes you very happy! We stayed for a while but as we had to get our rings back by 6pm, we left for the river again. 

It takes about an hour, with no stops, to get from the start to the finish in the wet season so the last part of our trip took a good half hour. There were a few more smaller bars along the last half an hour but because the current is so fast and strong, it is near on impossible to swim your ring to the river bank without falling out. Its common knowledge that many of the bars have been closed down as there have been many deaths over the years, but I do still think it is worth a visit just for the first two! As we approached the end, there was a man ready to help you out of the river and on to dry land. Of course, its me, nothing ever goes very smoothly so I managed to loose my ring and watched it float down the river. I shouted to some of the guys we'd met earlier to try and grab it as they were getting off at the next point but I was fully prepared to have lost it and have to pay the fine and too drunk to really care.

We made our way back to the start to give everyone else's rings back in probably the worst storm we have seen yet. Luckily, we were already soaked in river water but it was unlike any rain i've ever seen! Somehow, my ring came back with the others and we set off back to our hostel in a very very drunk state. We dryed off and only ventured back out for some very traditional pie and mash in an irish bar - perfect for warming us up. That night, we were too drunk to do anything else, ended up in bed by 9 and were up at 6am for our 24 hour journey to Chiang Mai - wow. 

We had such a little amount of time in Laos, which was such a shame as even the small parts we did see (minus the brown lagoon) were beautiful so I would definitely come back to see more! 

 

Hanoi, Ha Long Bay & Sapa

The journey to Hanoi was the worst of our night buses so far. Don't get me wrong, i'm not fussy about where i'm sleeping on this trip as i'm starting to feel like we live on night buses and having an actual bed is five star luxury, but you would think that when you are paying probably ten times the amount for a seat than the locals, they would at least be a bit nice to you, but no. We were not allowed to choose our seats, and god forbid should we try and sleep on the bottom bunk (this is for locals only) we were shuffled to the back seats with our rucksacks too. Being at the back of the bus made for a bumpy ride which was annoying enough, but we were then woken up by being thumped in the leg a few times. The driver then clambered up on to the beds with us still on them, shoved us out of the way, pushed my bag on to me so I nearly fell off and then PINCHED me so hard. After throwing a few nasty words at him we got off the bus and hoped for a smoother journey to our hostel. 

I will never understand why taxi drivers come to bus stations to pick up tourists when they cannot understand a word of what you were saying. Hanoi Backpackers' Hostel had been recommended by numerous people along the trip, so thats where we decided to head. Quite a simple name of a place you would think? The name of the town, what it was, and who it was for. We pointed at our bags, made sleeping actions, tried saying it slower but nothing worked so we headed out to the main road where we finally found a taxi driver who knew his arse from his elbow and took us straight there. 

It was around 7.30am when we arrived and I have never seen anything like what we walked in to. The huge lobby was full of people in bright sombreros and you could not move so at this point, after all the aggravation it took to get there, we were expecting them to be full. Luckily, we got a bed each and it is definitely one of the best hostels we have stayed in yet. We were quick to get out and explore the capital and to be honest, we didn't find much. There was a rubbish market, and a 'city gate' that looked more impressive in the hand drawing on the tourist map we had picked up. The main thing of note was what was on the other side of the gate; we had head stories of the locals eating dog in Hanoi (although who can be sure that they haven't eaten dog when they've ordered chicken - we are in Asia) but what we saw is beyond what we imagined. We were walking up the road and there were various food stalls which is nothing new but then we noticed a lady using a meat cleaver to cut up what looked like the back end of a skinned and deep fried dog. In disbelief, we kept walking only to find a basket full of whole dogs, still with their teeth growling. Not too sure why this is a normal food here and it made me feel physically sick so on that note, we headed back to our hostel. 

Now, there are two Hanoi Backpackers, the original, and the downtown. Convinced we were following the map to the right one, we ended up at the original after about an hours walk so we decided to cut our losses and jump in a taxi - female map reading wins again! Every Sunday, the hostel have a barbeque evening with free beer. Never to miss out on anything free, we headed to the terrace and had a few drinks before heading down to the bar who give out free shots almost hourly. We decided to play spoons, and with this genius idea we made a lot of friends, albeit one enemy who did "not want to play this kind of game" and swanned off in her ballgown and full face of make-up (no love lost there). 

The hostel put on a pub crawl every night and all the hostels around the area start in the hostel bar and move on down the road at around 10pm. The bar was good, and everyone was together which was nice, but the one thing thats starting to annoy me is that every club in Asia start to play some amazing songs and mix them all in to the same dubstep, clubby horrible noise, but apart from that it was fun. The bar was shut down by the police as Hanoi has a curfew and we decided to call it a night, not before getting a laughing cow cheese baguette as drunk munch, which has now become a weird craving of ours because its so good! We later heard that the bar crawl then heads to a dodgy club under a motorway bridge run by the mafia, wow. 

The next day, we were determined to be cultured even though we were hungover, so we set off with two of our dorm roommates to see Hoa Lo Prison after taking an unexpected de-tour to the Temple of Literature (don't ask) and it wasn't really worth it. The artefacts in the museum didn't seem legitimate and after seeing S-21 in Cambodia, it was a bit of a let down. After this, we set off for our first massage, which was a slightly awkward experience all lying naked next to eachother, but hey ho, we are all friends here. We had an early night ready for our Ha Long Bay and Castaway Island tour which started at 8am. 

What an AMAZING few days. Although it quite an expensive trip, it is worth every penny especially since you get a bright castaway hat (those sombreros we were so confused about when we first arrived). Now most of the funny things that happened on this trip shouldn't and wont be written on here but as a whole, it went a little like this:

We arrived at the port where we all split on to different boats. We were greeted by our Dutch tourguide Michael who spent the entire trip calling us English C***s which made us feel right at home. Boating around the bay was amazing, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen so at first I thought it was going to be a shame that we were about to spend most of the trip too drunk or too busy to really take it all but then I realised that was a stupid thought! 

We were given our bedrooms and quickly summoned up to the top deck where we were given the trip rules. No saying 'mine' or 'ten' or you had to do t-e-n pushups (you could opt to do girly pushups but only if you made sex noises whilst doing so) and you were not allowed to drink with your right hand. If you did, this was called out as a buffalo and you had to down whatever was in your hand. Luckily, I was caught out once, only with a bottle of water in hand. After our introductions, we were informed that it was shotgun o'clock (a time that seemed to roll around at too many times of the day) and we had to repeat the following chant:

MASTER SHOTGUNNER UP ABOVE, MAY THESE BEERS GO DOWN SMOOTHLY, QUICKLY, EFFICIENTLY, WITH MINIMAL SPILLAGE, AND MINIMAL AFTER-SICKAGE. SHOTTGUNNNN!

... and then shotgun our beers. After a few more shotgun's on the clock, we were off kayaking which was amazing. 

After this, we had a few more shotguns and jumped off the boat a few times before having dinner and getting ready for the evening. We mored up and had a boat party that night where one of the other boats of our 4 came to join us for a game of dragon: a game that involved alot of swapping clothes, drinking, getting naked, drinking, telling embarrassing confessions about yourself, drinking, kissing, guys lapdancing in girls clothes and more drinking. What a great way to all get to know your new friends!

The party carried on thanks to our legendary bar man Hank and after a few too many, we all crashed out knowing we'd be up at 7am to start it all over again but not before having a HANK SELFIE.

Breakfast the next day was not a good experience but most powered through as 9am rolled around and it was shotgun o'clock once again:

Even though I got a hell of a lot of abuse, I decided that a 9am beer was not for me but the other two powered through. GO ON GIRLS. Day two, and we were off to Castaway Island where we stayed in little huts on the beach with our party room friends and just mosquito nets for company.

The island was completely private just for the people on the tour and all of the boats were there together. The day was spent jumping off the pontoons, swimming, rock climbing, high speed tubing, playing volleyball, tanning and of course drinking. I decided not to drink all day considering my hangover but before dinner I finally manned up and got a beer, only for a good reason of course. A couple of years ago, one of the tourguides sadly passed away, so as a tribute to him everyone on the island goes to his memorial stone, the guides say a few words and then of course, you all shotgun to him. Before the shotgun, the last words were "to new friends, to old friends, and to absent friends" to which I welled up  and had to go for a secret cry with the girls in our hut. I find it so strange what little things can set you off when you have lost someone yourself but as the girls say, its better to get it out and i'm going to blame my ourburst on being drunk (on one beer). After my little moment, we had an amazing night, playing more drinking games, dancing, singing, late night DMC's on the beach and night swimming. The swimming was the most amazing thing as there is illuminous plankton in the sea so everytime you move, your body makes the water glitter around you, it was incredible and you cannot really imagine what it looks like until you get in the water. The hungover journey back to Hanoi the next day was horrendous - travelling home on a boat the day after consuming that much alcohol and having that little sleep should not be allowed. Thank you party boat crew, and everyone else at Castaway for the most fabulous time! 

After recovering from our very un-cultured few days, we decided to head to Sapa which is in the North of Vietnam and is home to 6 of the 54 different tribes in Vietnam, who all have their own languages. The scenery here is absolutely amazing as the mountains are all covered in staggered rice and corn fields. We thought the best way to see this (and detox from Castaway) would be to do a two day trek. We took the night bus from Hanoi and on arrival met our tourguide, Ya. Ya is from the Hmong tribe and was amazing, she spoke a lot of English and explained all about Sapa while taking us around our 10km trek. We visited her home and met her family, where her husband cooked us dinner, which was some of the best Vietnamese food we have eaten yet! She showed us how they weave, dye and make their own clothes and explained all about their religion and beliefs. Ya was so welcoming and really made us feel at home but for some reason the travel company make the trekkers stay elsewhere, which wasn't even half as good, so we took photo's of her house to take back to them to convince them to let them stay there instead, I hope we succeeded!

After lunch, we bought some souvenirs from the girls who came with Ya, who were obviously only there to sell us stuff, but nevertheless we got some nice bits, and took a dodgy headwear selfie on the sly. We spent the afternoon trekking to the village where we would be staying and at our homestay we were greeted by the biggest and scariest German Shepherd in the world. It was barking at the door and the owners didn't bother to do anything about it, just expected us to run past and try and dodge it. Even Ya was scared so we knew it wasn't just us being typical westerners. To be honest, I expected a lot more from a homestay. The family wasn't very welcoming, we spent most of it sat awkwardly outside, had an awkward dinner and made our excuses to go to bed for an extremely early night. Luckily, it was believable since we had been trekking all day. The next day Ya was waiting for us with pancakes and tea before we set off on the shorter 3km trek. She asked if we wanted easy or hard, we chose hard as easy was just walking along the main road back to the bus but were soon eating our words when we realised that the hard route was so hard because it had rained over night and we were slipping all over the place. The route may have been a third of the length of the day before but it was a lot harder since there were more up hill treks and you also had to concentrate so hard not to slip down the mud. We met with a larger group doing the same route, and just like us they had proper walking shoes on but we were all over the place. Suddenly, a group of local girls, who were no more than 7 or 8 joined the group with flip flops and sandals on who were there to hold your hands and help you down the mud. The embarrassment set in but it was safe to say most of us needed the help! We got to the bottom and found the waterfall which was so pretty but this was tainted by trying to be sold more rubbish! I should know by now that no one in Asia helps you for free. All the little girls were swarming around everyone saying "you buy bracelet from me" if you said no the response was "but I helped you so much" or "I not your friend anymore". It was so annoying as we didn't ask for the help, they just grabbed your hand! To be honest, if we hadn't already bought bracelets the day before, I probably would have given in but if I bought something from every person who asked here, I would have no money left by now and an arm full of bracelets that all look the same.

  

The trek was so good, and it was really nice to get back in to doing something a little more cultured than drinking. There is no stop for us at the moment so we headed back to town, showered, ate and got back on another night bus back to Hanoi where we arrived at 3.45am. Great, we didn't have a hostel booked, as we were expecting to be back at a more normal time of the morning when we could grab our bags from the storage room before leaving, and we didn't really know where we were. So we searched around for a taxi, which are surprisingly hard to come by as most of the drivers were asleep, and got them to take us to Hanoi Backpackers. We snuck past the security (who were asleep - got to love Asia) and headed up to the fifth floor where we bedded down on the sofas. Apart from being woken up by a few drunk people and being tutted at by the cleaners, it was a pretty good few hours sleep. After this, we grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. I will be really sad to leave Vietnam, it has been fabulous, but its time for the next stop. HELLO LAOS!

P.s, we finally got a selfie with some water buffalo - sod you Koh Rong!

Welcome to Vietnam.

The border crossing from Cambodia was much quicker than getting in as we already had our visas. It would also have been a lot smoother if we hadn't met a very lairy Australian who convinced most people on the bus that the driver was out to con them and to argue to walk through with their own passports. Of course, this pissed the driver off and took longer but the girl was happy. We also got conned out of $1 for a 'medical test' as we didn't have an international vaccination certificate (who knows how you get one of those) which involved you ticking a box if you have a disease and them taking your temperature. WHAT!! Next time we know to refuse this and argue that you do have your vaccinations and walk off. 

The sleeper buses are a million times nicer in Vietnam, we each have individual beds for a start and we have wifi, which still blows my mind. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as the locals still call it and it was such a weird experience. Every other time we have gotten off a bus, there has been at least 10 Tuk Tuk drivers waiting and literally surrounding you as you stepped off. This time, there was nothing and no one around. We tried to ask other people on the bus but they weren't very helpful. We decided to walk around the bus station to see if there was any Tuk Tuk's or taxis in another area and we found nothing. Still not sure if we had actually reached our destination, we left the bus station and walked the streets finally finding a taxi who took us to our hostel after we'd learnt our lesson about turning up to a main city without a booking. We only stayed here one night as it was down a few too many dodgy alleyways for our liking and moved on to Eco Backpackers which was a pretty good find. We private little pods for beds, so even though there were 10 people to a dorm, it felt quite private.

Ho Chi Minh City was a world away from everywhere in Cambodia, it has a much more western feel and it is the busiest place I have ever seen. Every road has a sea of mopeds and crossing them feels like you're gong to die everytime. The best tactic was to find a local and follow them and/or close your eyes and run. We spent our time in the city eating Pho, a traditional vietnamese soup, going to the market and buying too much (best market we've found so far), visiting the reunification palace and going to the war remnants museum, which basically seemed to be a museum that showed all the bad things that America did to them and didn't really explain the war at all which was a little dissapointing. 

We had been wondering what the local drinking culture was like here and whether the locals got as drunk as us Brits and were pleased to discover its not only us who cant handle it... While having a drink outside a bar where we were the only westerners a group of local girls came falling out of the bar trying to hold one of their friends up. I have never seen someone so drunk, she couldn't even hold herself up to sit on a stool. At one point she fell backwards and on to the floor right below my bench so even I had to get up and help her. We werent sure how the rest of the locals would react, some were laughing but her friends were crying, she was crying and we couldn't help but think 'she is only drunk, just get her some food and water, it isnt the end of the world' but it seems as though this isn't a regular occurrence. The worst part about this was how they got her home, her clearly very angry boyfriends turned up on his moped and after trying alot of times with her falling out of their arms, they draped her on the back of his moped and rested her head on his back and off they went... Mental.

The best place we visited was Cu Chi, which before the war was a little town of locals who supported the north in the war. As they were living in the south, they were targeted so they built tunnels and rooms underground so that they could hide from the American troops. It was really facinating to see and we even got the chance to crawl through one of the original tunnels (none of us three were brave enough as it was pitch black, you could hardly move and there were bats and other animals in your way. We did, however crawl through the newly constructed tunnels that have lights in and have been made wider for the fat westerners and even this was claustrophobic enough so god knows how these people lived in there. Our tour guide, Jackie was fantastic. He worked as a translator during this time so he knows everything you would need to know.

We were pretty lucky with our hostel this time round, we met a group of Dutch friends and had a night out with them, starting with a bar that consisted of sitting on plastic chairs in the middle of the road with mopeds dodging you and finishing by cramming 11 people in to one taxi to get to Apocalypse club. It had a good mix of locals and westerners and once again we were the ones having it the hardest! This made the local girls want to join in and slutdrop with us sometimes to the disappointment of their boyfriends but I love how much fun they seem to be having when they get in with a group of westerners, so keep it coming girls - we can all pretend we can dance like Beyonce together!! And then look like this the next day:

From Ho Chi Minh, we set off to Nha Trang, which is more of a holiday town but was pretty fun. Full of Russians as it seems to be their go to holiday destination and everything was in Russian, then Vietnamese then English which was bizarre. We decided to have a proper 'girls holiday' few days and booked a booze cruise, and a day at a water & theme park but not before spending the morning on the beach and visiting the mud and mineral baths which was such a bizzarre experience but quite nice dispite sharing a bath with a few strangers. 

Where do I start with the booze cruise?! Well first let me say that it was most definitely NOT a booze cruise which we slowly started to realise after we got on the coach and one by one, families with kids got on, mixed with one or two westerners and then an 80 year old local got on and sat next to Leanne. Oh god, we thought while Lisa tried to stay positive and thinking we'd be put on a separate boat. We weren't. The guide tried his hardest to make it a booze cruise and told us if we weren't drunk we couldn't go home and put Snoop Dogg's 'young and wild and free' on. It was laughable. We pulled up to the first island where we stayed for 2 hours to snorkel, had lunch on the boat and then it all turned. Suddenly a 'band' was set up and they sang us some songs, then got people from different countries to come up and sing something from their country. The Scottish boys got up and the band started playing Wonderwall, then the American sang along to Country Roads, then it was Korea's turn. They started singing along to a traditional Korean song and suddenly the DJ came over the top of themwith  Gangnam Style, the boat went crazy and they sang all of the words, somehow looking quite cool while doing it. After a few more beers, it was time for the floating bar. You could jump off the top of the boat and swim to a man giving out free cocktails which was basically a really strong vodka and fanta. On the last Island we decided to go on the jet-skis and for some reason the people you rented them stayed on the back with you which was a bit weird. Leanne was driving and went so fast that our man shot off the back and in to the water but he seemed to love it. 

After talking to the others on the boat, we realised that they had booked at snorkeling trip and were equally disappointed as they hardly saw anything. Never expect to be doing what you think you will be in Asia. After moaning alot before lunch, we ended up having such a fun day and went out for drinks afterwards where it was ladies night (free cocktails!!).

The next day we were off to Vinpearl waterpark which was a fun day out and Lisa accidently walked around showing everything off after her bikini top had moved position after going down a slide without her noticing. Luckily (or unluckily), I saw and had to tell her accross a group of people. It was genuinely the funniest thing and everytime I think about it I crease up. I now feel like were even closer (and have seen them once more since). The best part of this was going across to the island on a cable car and seeing such a good view of the surrounding islands.

The next day we were off to Da Lat, which is only four hours away from Nha Trang but it felt like a whole new country. Da Lat was so very cold, which I liked for all of about five minutes then missed the heat. We stayed at Da Lat Family Hostel and it was AMAZING. It is a bit much when you first walk in, but they are the most amazing and welcoming people and really make you feel like you are part of the family. It is run by Mama, and her two daughters - Crazy and Sexy Annie. There is a lot of hugging, a lot of massages and a lot of free food. We went out for dinner with Sexy Annie the first night and Mama cooked for everyone the second night. There was about 30 of us sat round the table in their lounge and after paying $2 each, we ate like kings. Mama couldn't speak English but taught us a catchy song about Vietnam which we all keep singing now. 

If you go to Da Lat, YOU HAVE TO STAY HERE!! The only reason we went was to go Canyoning which was amazing. I left my inner wuss at home and braved the cliff jumping, abseiling and sliding down rocks. It was the most fabulous day and so much fun until I managed to fall from about ten metres up down a twenty five metre waterfall. I couldn't move my fingers for a while, and am now in a lot of pain but it was so worth it even with them shouting at you to "GO GO GO!!" And "LEAN BACK MORE, MORE MORE MORE". I don't think I would have done it without them shouting as nothing was scarier than looking down when you're at the top, with only two ropes holding you up.

From Da Lat, we went off to Hoi An, nothing much to say about here as all we did was ride bicycles to the beach as we thought it the safer way to travel after Lisa's leg and went out drinking that night. One off us strolled in a little later than the others on the back of a moped and found the hostel locked up and had to climb over the fence showing all of her modesty to her new friend Lo, the driver. At 5 in the morning, this was the funniest story and after being a little bit too loud we were shouted at by the hotel staff. The next day we spent in bed, all day. Leaving the room twice, both times for food. After not making the most of Hoi An, we were determined that at our next stop, Dong Hoi we would do lots. 

Dong Hoi is a small town with NOTHING TO DO. The only reason you go is to visit the caves, which we did and Paradise Cave was amazing to see but not worth the aggravation we experienced to get there. I will never understand why a taxi driver would pick you up, quote you a price, start driving and then noticeably have no idea where they are going. After argueing with the driver and thinking he would leave us in the middle of no where, we made it back and were so looking forward to getting the night bus and away from this town. Shock, the hostel had mucked up our bus but managed to fit us on another, not before driving us around town and dropping us at the wrong bus stops - what a day!!