Hanoi & Halong Bay!

We had booked a sleeper bus to get to Hanoi, which was originally meant to take 26 hours. We thought it wouldn't be too bad, however after a stressful border cross, back ache and numb legs it became apparent it would be over 30 hours in transit! My longest journey yet.
Hanoi is so far north it is quite cold at this time of year. It was strange to be wearing jackets and gloves again after so long. We arrived quite late and as there is a midnight curfew we headed straight out to a bar for a couple of drinks - We needed them after being sat down on the bus for so long. If you are through the door before 12 a lot of the bars will let you stay until past 3am; as long as you are inside and upstairs so that the police are unaware.. Yet even then the police will often come in to close down a bar if it is open after hours, as we experienced on our last night in Hanoi.
The hostel we stayed at, Hanoi Backpackers, was fantastic, and one of the best I have been to. It just so happened that the day we arrived Erna (the girl who I traveled Koh Phangan and Cambodia with) was also booked in! We spent the next day exploring the city. Despite being a large city, it is all very close together and busy. The electrical poles are an electricians nightmare, all tangled up.. They looked very dangerous.

Through our backpackers, we organised a trip to see Halong bay for a stay on an overnight boat. When we arrived we took kayaks out to see some of the fishing villiages. We also stopped in a cave to have a little explore. The evening was mainly centred around getting wasted, and after the biggest game of Kings Cup I have ever played, we put on some music and partied on deck surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Halong Bay is one of the natural wonders of the world, and it is easy to see why. I had such a funny night. One of the highlights has to be when Tommy got so excited about a song he jumped up and down until the stage collapsed under him.
We got back to Hanoi in time for one final drunken night out with Tommy and Steve before my journey to India to meet Jonny!

Vang Vieng!

After a night of transit in Vientiane, we arrived at Vang Vieng where we had planned to spend Christmas and New years. We had booked to stay in an open aired tree-house, oblivious to the fact that at this time of year the weather is similar to an English summer meaning it got quite cold at night. It wasn't unbearable though, and I was fine sleeping with a couple of layers on.
People go to Vang Vieng to go 'tubing', where you rent a rubber tube and float down the river stopping at bars along the way by catching on to ropes thrown from the shore, however on arrival we found that on most days it isn't even worth renting a tube; instead just drinking, dancing, and playing beer pong at the first few bars on the river. It was great fun, with such beautiful views of mountains in the background where there are apparently wild tigers and bears!
People run around with pens writing disgusting yet hilarious things on each other and the DJ plays the same playlist every day. I had a fantastic time, but it did remind me a bit of being 18 again at freshers.
Before I went to Vang Vieng I was told how dangerous it is, and on arrival you can see how easy it is to get injured on the zip lines and huge slides after copious amounts of alcohol, but anyone that knows me well knows I've never been much of a swimmer as I hate putting my face underwater and so I stayed away from them.
Unfortunately, like quite a lot of SE Asia, a lot of the bars have a curfew, although after a day drinking on the river this is probably a good thing.
I visited the blue lagoon there on one of the days of my stay which was gorgeous. The water really was so blue! We climbed up some steps to a cave where we explored a bit, but decided to chill out in the shade and listen to some music instead of climb further into the dark wearing flip flops.
I met some amazing people whilst there. Jess decided to stay there working at a bar, yet it just so happened that two boys we met, Steve and Tommy, were planning on going to Hanoi at a similar time as we had originally decided upon and so I joined them, and after four months together me and Jess parted ways.
Overall, I had a fantastic time in Vang Vieng. The music is cheesy, but the whiskey is free..