Another year older, another year wiser?

What a week! Since I've blogged I finished my travels in Vietnam which included our overnight boat cruise around Ha Long Bay - which was absolutely fabulous and drunken fun!



Returning to KL I had an overnight stop before getting up at 04.00 to go to HK for my birthday. Getting to sleep at 01.30 led me to sleep through my 2 alarm clocks and I was woken at 04.30 by the pre booked taxi driver asking where i was - thank God I booked. I skipped the Bus from KL Sentral and headed straight to the airport.

HK was a blast and as usual didn't disappoint. The weather held out for our Junk and I got massively drunk aboard deck - whoops! We had a fantastic time. The morning of my birthday was a hike for H and I up to Victoria Peak and brunch in a really nice restaurant called the Peak Cafe. Perfect.

One of my friends works for Coach and told me to swing by for a 50% (!!!) discount :):):) I ended up buying not one bag but three pieces - a bag, wallet and evening bag - but with 50% discount I'd be foolish not to! haha.



Eventually made it back to KL at about 02.00 this morning. Off to the gym now to rediscover my abs and then the removal guys will arrive at 11 to drop off my boxes - and so the hard work begins. Although I know that in the end - the leaving will be harder than the packing itself.

Wow, I'm 26. Ticking new boxes (26-30) now and a massive change is ahead, and as usual, I wonder, what on earth I will be doing this time next year - now this one is a REAL thinker...

Bloooooood

Up in Hanoi now, after a few days in Hoi An which was a lovely Old City full of beautiful shops where I had a dress made and shoes - a pair for me and a pair for bombies :)

Our journey there was on the sleeper bus, which was somewhat horrific and cramped, some random man stroked my leg in the night too... at least he didn't suck on my toes :s He may have liked my toes though, before getting the bus we went to a Mud Spa and it was really fun.

12 hours later we made it to our next destination.

We spent our time lazing on the beach, cycling around town and met up with Laurie again. We headed off yesterday morning to catch our flight (YES we gave in). As we got into the cab i had a strange impulse to check the ticket, this was when I realised our flight was booked for tyhe next day - doh.

Anyways we got on the waiting list and managed to make it up to Hanoi the same day. Hanoi is stinking hot and a bit crazy - much like Ho Chi Min. We're staying at this awesome hostel - Hanoi Backpackers. We stayed in a dorm this time as the rooms were full, but to be honest, despite paying $1 more a night it has enabled us to make a billion friends.

Yesterday was free beer all afternoon on the rooftop bar, followed by a trip to the SNAKE village last night where YES I tried a shot of Snake Blood (after seeing the snake brutally murdered) with the beating heart still in the shot glass, that was followed by snake bile - it tasted like very, very strong tequila! haha.

We all got shit faced on Snake Wine(?) and beer and played I have never... that dam game.... ;)

Today we booked our boat trip around Halong Bay, there is a group of us going and so it should be sweeet as. We're off to see the famous Water Puppetry tonight.

I miss Mada. Wonder if he would enjoy something like this....?

Must go, my new found friend has found a place for pedicures... hehe well, us "flashpackers"must have SOME luxuries. Besides, I am sleeping in a room with 14 other people...

Lots of love x

Goooood Mornin' Vietnam

I write to you from the land of Vietnam, where the internet in all hostels is FREE (times have changed since my backpacking days all those moons ago) and where the settings on blogspot are in Vietnamese. No I haven't learnt the language but I blog so frequently I know which buttons to autoclick on - haha!

So far, Vietnam is awesome. Arriving into HCM City was crazy, and i thought the traffic in KL was bad - think again. There are more motorbikes here than one can ever imagine but suprisingly, it is easier to cross a road here as the vehicles tend to veander around you rather than you dodging them.

We stayed at this absolutely lovely backpackers - Madam Cuc's. The manager, Ha, was so kind, gunine and friendly and made us feel right at home. We shared a room with our own bathroom for 10 bucks each. Including breakfast and dinner :) We were on the 5th floor (no lift) so the backpackers were hooked onto like a strong "pully" thing which lifted our bags up through the stairwell - it was fascinating.

We got out and about sampling all the local dishes (and in some real dives too!) as well as eatin in the outdoor market area. We tried the infamous paper rice rolls, the beef rice noodles and pancakes - delicious. We have camwhored over 600 times to date :P

We hung out with some other backpackers whilst taking an interesting trip to the Cu Chi undergorund bunkers from the Vietnam War - Kiwiboy nearly collapsed after squating through 80 metres of narrow paths. I sweated more than i did in an average spinning class (Bombie, i know you can imagine how grose I felt!).

I also shot 10 bullets from an AK47 and it was sweeeeet. And a tad expensive. But all in all the food has been cheap so far and all "Saigon" beers have been 241.

There was a small incident with a flying cockroach on our first night and Charles (may he rest in peace) was unfortunately murdered by Kiwiboy's shoe. Poor Charles... but well, in this day and age... it really is survival of the fittest. I have to say, i was thankful for having a "man" (yes, this is the one and only time i will refer to Kiwiboy as a "man") who thankfully "protected" me from Charles' evil intentions (flying into my mouth whilst i sleep and laying eggs inside of me etc).

Overnight i convinced KiwiBoy (much to his unwillingness due to previous experience) for us to take the sleeper train (the Hogwart express as i fondly refer to it as)rather than the over night bus to Nha Trang. It is a 7 hour journey and cost 23 bucks.

We met some adorable Vietnamese kids who shared our "cabin" with us (cabin being a room smaller than my old office with six bunks in it) and they kept us entertained for about 2 hours. I taught the little one (age 3) to count from 1 - 4 in English and a few "clapping" games whilst the older one (who was 5) definitely had a little crush on Kiwiboy who let her wear his aviators.

Eventually we crawled into our bunkers and managed to get about 4 hours shut eye. Whilst Kiwiboy lit up, I got harassed by the locals for a place to stay. At first i told then I wold "discuss with my Husband" first, on a second thought i was too tired to have a discussion over it - and went ahead with arranging our place to stay and transfer. I think Kiwiboy was a little shocked with my "right, i've sorted it, get in the cab" comment. Hehe.

This morning Kiwiboy was hallucinating due to his sheer exhaustion (weaner) so i let him sleep and went for a wonder around town and to the beach. On my reutrn i woke him up and we went for lunch where an innocent game of pool turned into somewhat of a dodgy situation with some locals - needless to say we now own two new books.. and at a price - best start reading!

The afternoon was spent sleeping on the beach and now we will go for a few drinkies on the hostels rooftop terrace. I have no idea what we're doing tomorrow, we are taking the "go with the flow" approach and it seems to be working out so far.

Accounts wise, money seems to be fleeing our wallets without intention :) We have created a "Mutual Fund" :) where we both put in the same amount to cover food, rent and travel expenses. This was a sensible suggestion, but as i say.. somehow we seem to have spent most of it already... :s

So, we have about another 1000 km to travel in 6 days. What are the odds we end up taking a domestic flight to hanoi in the next few days...? We'll see....

Must dash, its JD O'Clock ;)

(ps sorry for no spell check, can't be arsed) :P