Sep 2006

Still in Hanoi in the backpackers hostel! We are checking out tonight, staying in another place in Hanoi and then off to Sapa in the north to do some trekking and visit a few ethnic tribes involved in tourism.

Got back from Halong Bay last night - beautiful place consisting off over 2000 islands. Most of the trip was on a boat - photo's (on snapfish) don't really capture the sights but give you an idea of what it was all about. The first day we stopped off on one of the islands and visited some massive limestone caves - full of stalagmites and stalagtites - geography came in useful! haha. We then continued on the boat and stopped off at another island - hiked to the top and the views were amazing. Sunset swim, followed by dinner on the boat. Food is lovely - mostly fish, noodles and rice - but wayne is eating it all! Its that or starve so I think he's adjusting to a new diet - or he may come back looking like a rake!

Cabin was pretty rank - ants all over the bathroom floor but it was ok - next day we did some kayaking in lagoons - was really fun but got a v v numb bum. Visited a floating village - where all residents live on these floating huts - we waited for our boat in one of their homes for about 30mins - even there they were trying to flog us pringles and beer. Wayne played pool with one of the residents - but no-one understood their rules! haha. The kids go to school in a floating hut - its so surreal.

Contined on to island near Cat Ba - private island and resort was fantastic - had our own room in beach huts (see pics) and there was a bar, pool table, mnore kayaks....i just chose to laze on the beach and read but wayne went off around the island with Olaf and saw some wicked caves.

People on the trip were all really cool - a real mix: German, French, Spanish, Kiwi's, Canadians and us! It was realy funny talking to the couples from new zealand (they were in there 50's/60's) and said they loved English humour - Office, Faulty Towers etc - Coronation Street is on everynight in NZ - hahah how odd! They gave us their contact details so we can give them a ring or drop by when we get to the north island in Feb.

The rules of the sea are the same as on land - honking, bumping into each other etc. - manic! We can't wait to try out their airline (thinking of flying from Saigon to Siem Reap - Cambodia - so that we don't have the hassle of the border again!) We must have crashed into other boats multiple times and the harbour boats bump into each other and push just to dock! Its crazy - we had to climb over another boat to get out. Women and girls row floating supermarkets - they appraoch the boat throughout the day trying to sell you various food stuffs and drinks - where ever you go you get harassed!

Went for dinner in Hanoi with olaf, Danielle and Jacob (a German guy we met on the trip) last night. Jacob then took us to a bar/road side stall in the old quarter for cheap beer - i.e. 7p for a glass!!! unbelievable. Think we spent 1.50 GBP on the meal and 48p on drinks after - not bad! haha only thing is coping with the illegal sellers - little boy came up to us trying to sell us photocopied books - in the end I couldn't say know so spent 3.50 GBP on a photocopied book - rip off but hopefully he'll get a cut of the money - he 'says' he uses it for schooling - who knows - but he was very bright - knew a lot about various locations across the globe.

anyway going to love you and leave you now - take care and we'll update you soon. Appologies for all the poor spelling, grammer and fragmented documentation - we're in a constant rush when it comes to computer time!

spk soon xxx

Hi guys,

We are now in Hanoi, Vietnam after a very eventful 36 hour journey from Hong Kong - it started out well: we boarded a clean, spatious high tech train in Hong Kong and after a 2.5 hour journey we arrived in Guangzhou in southern China - we were the only white people and were stared at from the moment we arrived from then on!! We needed to get to another station in the city so stupidly followed this guys advice and got badly ripped off. He tried to get us a soft sleeper berth on the train but there werent any beds left so in the end we paid for 2 seats and he gave us a piece of paper with 'we are prepared to pay more for beds' written on it. He dropped us off at the station in a minibus and we waited in the city for a few hours as we didnt have a map and didnt want to get lost!

Boarded the train and had a fight with 2 girls as they'd knicked our EXPENSIVE/OVERPRICED seats! We had to give in as we couldnt communicate properly, but then found a station guard, showed them the piece of paper and they nodded, sending us in the direction of the guard office on board the train. Handing over another 10GBP we managed to book ourselves beds, which in fact appeared to be 3 seats with a sheet thrown over them. This was fine though - we were happy as we had much more space. The guards however were not as pleased, they shooed us away and made us follow yet another guard!! We walked through multiple carriages and ended up in what can only be described as hell! sections upon sections of triple bunks, full of chinese people. we slept (?!?) well attempted to sleep on 2 bottom bunks next to the toilet...after 14 hours we finanlly arrived in Nanning at 4.45am. It was pitch black and we had no idea where to go - but a really friendly canadian couple appraoched us and were in the same situation...so we wondered around together, found a new ticket office, purchased our train tickets to the border for just over 1GBP each and played cards with them in a station cafe for a few hours until we could board the train. We then sat with them on the train and have been with them ever since.

I am sooo glad we met them as crossing the Chinese/Vietnamese border was very confusing. The train we all hoped to get didnt exist, and after riding these wierd motorbike vehicle we took a taxi to the nearest town and was told by the taxi driver to get a minibus with most of the local people into Hanoi...very cramped journey!! wayne was shoved in the back with half of the luggae and goods the local people were planning to sell in a market! He had permanent cramp.

The minibus driver then refused to drop us off at our hotel so we have ended up sharing a dorm with the couple we met in china - Hanoi is beautiful - i prefer it to Hong Kong because its less metropolitan. Vietnam is an ex-French colony and therefore seems really European - loads of quaint bussling streets but larger French tree-lined avenues as well.

Anyway I have tro go now - check out our pics on www.snapfish.com as it takes far too long to upload them onto this site - if you want to see the pics let me know and i'll e-mail you the 'share pics' link.

Sorry the photo's dont make much sense without accompanying description but i'll try and sort this out at a later date.

Hope everyones ok, love E and W xxx

Hi all - sorry we have loads of photos but we're having problems uploading them and this internet access is so expensive we have to go - i'll try and update again in vietnam. love u e and w xxx

Hi all! Great to hear from everyone - we're missing u all!

Ignore my poor spelling!! Im half asleep......

Arrived in HK on Sunday morning after a LONG 12 hour flight which was made LONGER by my neighbouring passenger; a 3/4 year old BRAT! Her mother had absolutely NO control over her and she therfore proceeded to kick, scream, pinch and generally lash out for the entire flight - we therefore didnt manage to get any sleep. Lack of sleep = absent mind and therefore I somehow managed to lock myself out of my day pack (which had our passports, money and boarding cards in it etc etc...) PANIC struck, but Wayne managed to calm me down and our first contact with Hong Kong citizens resulted in a request to a secuirty guard for a pair of bolt cutters!?! haha anyway - managed to break into my bag and we were able to master the MTR (underground system) which is incredibly clean, modern and air conditioned - London needs to look East.

Found our hotel a couple of hours after we landed - really really nice. Since we arrived b4 check in we were upgraded and our currently residing in an executive room - not bad for a pair of budget travellers...BUT when we got to the room I realised that somehow (I REALLY DON'T KNOW HOW) I had also locked myself out of my backpack...wayne therfore for the second time that day had to ask for a pair of bolt cutters - I think the authorities may now have him on their records as a suspicous tourist...

Have wondered around Kowloon (area where we are staying) and Hong Kong Island - went to the Symphony of Lights last night, hence the pictures of illuminated skyscrapers. Visited the Avenue of Stars (HK version of Hollywood Boulevard), street markets and the Peak (on the 100 year old tram line)...

Mum - Wayne now appreciates your sparse cupboards! He feels that you have prepared him well for this trip - opening an empty cupboard is once again the story of our lives (although he still believes your cupboards are worse!) hahaha

Basically we have been wondering around the city like tourists for the last few days. The city is very similar to London - with massive financial centres and designer shops...however it is MUCH cleaner - we havent seen any litter. Dodgy acoomodation is well hidden, behind new hotels and shopping malls - but everything is so squahed in - its really claustrophobic (sorry cant spell!)

We have booked out train to China for Tuesday morning, but once we're in we have no idea where to go!! think we are going to try and get a sleeper train from Guangzhou to Nanning, so will arrive in Nanning at 5:30 am. From there we will try and get a train to the border - bit scary but im sure we'll figure something out - our aim is to get to Hanoi (Vietnam) by Wed eve - we'll see.....

Went for a swim tonight - hence the photos but are now off to bed - long journey ahead of us....

having a great time so far but missing you all - keep us updated via e-mail or on this blog, spk soon, love u loads E and W xxxx

Hi all, just testing that my 'not-so-technically-minded-brain' can master this travel blog. If you can read this then I'm better than I thought. If you can't I'll have to call upon Rich to rectify my wrongs...Take Care, Emma x