Hoi an 8th-11th August, Hué 11th-13th, Da Nang 13th-14th, Halong Bay 14th-16th and Hanoi 16th-17th August:

We arrived in hoi an in good time from nha trang, as we flew to da nang airport so we could skip the 12 hour bus ride. Hoi an was not a great place for me, the first day we had there I was ill for most of it due to eating dodgy fruit but I only seemed to enjoy the city at night. It was beautiful, we put candles on the water and wondered around the city decorated with beautiful lanterns, Daniel explored some of the temples without me in the day and thought they were beautiful also. On the last day in Hoi an we booked an Eco tour, this included going to the markets and learning how to haggle down a price for food and seeing how the locals produce their products. It was interesting to see how the locals handled their produce and what was on sale, after the market we were taken on a small boat that took us to a river leading down to the restaurant that was going to teach us how to cook. However to get there we had to take a small coconut boat, it was a great experience paddling through the mangrove forests to the cafe, an experience I won't forget! The cooking was educational for us Brits because as the culture is so different, it's amazing to see how the food was produced and we got to experiment with so many new foods, it was wonderful!   Hoi an was soon spoilt by our hostel, they tried to charge daniel 32,000 dollars on his card and they weren't very co operative with other guests on important matters so when asked by others if they should stay here, we told them no and to make matters worse we had to get on a bus with no air conditioning for four hours. We were not happy. 

However when we got to Hué, we settled down and became happy again after a shower and some chill time, we didn't explore much of Hué that night due to being exhausted from the journey. We only had one day in Hué, so we decided to travel on a boat to a famous tower where they trained monks in a chapel, there was not much to see in Hué besides that and the imperial city which wasn't particularly thrilling due to much of it being re done so it lost its authenticity. Luckily for us we found a lovely coffee shop that made smoothies for around 32,000 dong which is less than a pound in Britain! The atmosphere was calming and the air conditioning was welcoming. 

We travelled back to Da Nang to catch a flight to Hanoi on the 14th, we only stayed a night in Da Nang and it's just a very busy city ! We didn't get to see much of it but we could tell it would be a bit much for us. 

Halong bay on the 14th of August was a complete mare to get too, we arrived at Hanoi airport and a taxi driver claimed to know where he was going when we told him to go to the bus station but instead he took us to the train station and so we had to get another taxi to the actual bus station where we got a local bus to halong bay. The local buses are interesting but the locals were surprisingly welcome towards us and bought us some guava, our hotel was a three star which we only found out until we got there and it was a lovely break from the hostels we had had before. We booked a boat trip to halong bay for the next day, the situation we have noticed most in vietnam is that they never tell you what's going on, you are left waiting around for ages not knowing what's happening and you never know who to ask as no one seems to be in charge. We waited an hour and a half to finally get on a boat, the hosts weren't very nice but it didn't matter as the experience of halong bay was just out of this world. We were able to kayak through some of the islands and we have never been somewhere so silent and peaceful, we also visited a cave which was also breathtaking due to the size and scale of the rocks. The whole experience was a great way to end Vietnam for us, we would recommend it to anyone. For dinner, we tried out a bbq place recommended on trip advisor, you order a platter of meat and it is cooked right in front of you and we got to try new things also. Even though we stayed in a very nice hotel, we were never able to get much sleep due to a rooster making noises from about 4am each day, it was hilarious but horrible. 

We arrived in Hanoi after a nice four hour bus ride the next day, chilled out and went to a nice swanky restaurant where we had the best food! 

So now we are leaving vietnam and we are off to thailand! Cannot wait! 

Peace out! 

❤️❤️

Nha Trang 2nd - 8th August 2015

Nha trang 2nd - 8th August 

We decided to stay in Nha trang for a week as we assumed there would be a lot to do, there was not. We filled most of our days walking around and chilling on the beach, it wasn't as polluted as Mui Ne was but there was still a slight prescience. Nha Trang to us was a big tourist place, we saw many westerners around the time we were there and for once there was quite a few British. We arrived in Nha trang by bus, a similar bus we had used to get to Mui Ne from Ho Chi Minh but we weren't dropped off at our hotel we were just left at a bus stop not knowing where to go. However, two seemingly nice taxi drivers saved the day saying they could take us to our hotel, I was relieved thinking it would be an easy journey with not much hassle. We were wrong. The "taxis" turned out to be motorbikes which at first I wasn't too sure about as both me and Daniel had quite large backpacks between us and we wondered how the hell they would fit them on the motorcycle along with us but we managed and off we went. It was fantastic, an experience I would do again but please remember to agree a price before you get on the motorbike because when we arrived at our stop they really ripped us off! They charged us 500,000 dong which was 15 quid each for a 10 minute drive that was only supposed to average out about 150,000! Needless to say we were very careful with anyone after that. 

Generally both the hotels we stayed at were good, lovely location as the beach was easily accessible and we could get to many restaurants quite easily. The downside however was that both places had an incredibly bad noise problem, we had both building work and disturbing neighbours that didn't let us get much sleep! Otherwise it was a very pleasant stay in both places. ( we stayed at Ha Thu Hotel and Jennie Jenns apartments. 

We tried to vary the restaurants from night to night but our favourite had to be a place called Lanterns, the staff were friendly and the food at dinner and breakfast were delicious! We never had a bad time there which is why we went back so frequently! 

Activity wise we only did two major things: snorkelling and the mud baths, both very touristy things I know but both definitely worth doing! 

We felt like we stayed a bit long in Nha Trang but I was glad to top up my tan and chill out on a real beach! Nha trang is worth a visit in a backpackers eyes. 

Love Tam ️xox

Mui Né 30th July - 2nd August 2015

We arrived in Mui Né after a 5 hour bus ride from Ho Chi Minh City, the bus we took was a sleeper bus so we had the opportunity to relax and not be stuck in a cramped seat where we weren't able to move. The journey went quite quickly due to the surroundings we were able to see, driving through Vietnam is a very eye opening experience if you haven't been in a developing country before and you become fascinated with their culture because they work incredibly different to westerners. 

Mui Né was a bit of a disappointment for us due to the pollution in the sea, the lack of restaurants and also the lack of people. It was great to relax for a while after having a busy few days in the city but you struggled to even find fresh fruit, it was a bit of a struggle for me to adjust to greasy food but the people were friendly enough. I did have a problem with their attitude towards the sea, walking down the road you saw constant stream of tanks filled with stingray, turtles, frogs and eels that were taken from the ocean for the benefit of so called tourist. I hated it, I did consider buying a few turtles and stingrays to let them go but doing some research on the subject it would of just made matters worse as the animals would of just been replaced and in the end you are funding them to carry on the trade. 

All in all Mui Né was a disappointment, it was picturesque at times but the atmosphere was 0% as it was off season and the place is completely run down.