Friday 29th Oct 2010

Did I say the overnight train was the worst sleep ever? I take it back! Hin Boun was far worse. Its a tiny village one of the poorest places I’ve ever been to including Sheepmore (only joking). Everybody lives in wooden houses on stilts. They were some of the happiest people we’ve met though. The kids were mesmerised by us. Our tour guide doubled up as a chef and cooked us a local dinner. The fun really started when it was time to go to bed! We were split into groups of four and taken away into the pitch black night (no street lights because there are no streets!!) with our crappy rechargeable torches. We walked up to what I thought was a barn only to find out it was where we’d be sleeping. The woman that owned the house found my attempts at climbing the ladder to bed hilarious because I was bricking it that it would collapse under my weight! It was wafer thin! She even called people over to point and laugh! Our bed consisted of mats on the floor with faulty mosquito net. We had a chorus of crickets all night long plus the loudest gecko in the world decided to take up residence right beside my ear. The cockerels partied all night long and didn't stop just because the sun was up. They were hardcore. The next day a bus of zombies crossed the Vietnam border. We had one night in Ninh Binn then it was off to our cruise liner in Halong Bay. After checking out the caves we spent the night anchored amongst the cliffs. The amazing views were totally ruined by our brutal karaoke singing but we had fun trying. Then it was off to Hanoi for a few days. I loved this city it was a weird mix of old style markets and modern shops. The traffic is mental though. We became expert Vespa dodgers quite quickly. We had another over night train to Hue. Our carriage was delightful and all the cockroaches made it really cosy!! I managed to sleep a bit better on this one but we were delayed for six hours due to flooring along the tracks. Considering we just missed out on a typhoon we should count ourselves lucky!