Look mum, I’ve still got my teeth!

All of them in fact are still residing happily in my mouth where they belong, and apart from a big bruise on Amy’s leg we escaped unharmed from our bike ride to the beach! I’m not sure if Amy would agree but I definitely think it was worth it… the beach was beautiful!

 Contrary to popular belief we have not been abducted or injured – we’ve been in Halong Bay for the past two days. The best was to describe it is with pictures… it was truly amazing. I just can’t fathom how wind and water could possibly do this over time. My only criticism of the trip was that it wasn’t long enough to explore more than just the basic “tourist” highlights!

So right now we’re back in Hanoi and, having been quite frugal with most of our other accommodation, we’ve checked into the Sheraton. It seemed like a good idea at the time but what we didn’t know when we were booking was that the ASEAN conference was on (at the Sheraton) this week. Yesterday we got back from our cruise and had to walk up the driveway because they wouldn’t let our bus drive us up because the Russian President was here! It’s a bit funny really - Amz and I are still dressed like scummy backpackers so we get these looks from all the staff constantly like we don’t belong. Last night we’d gone out to grab some dinner (we gave up trying to find somewhere because the traffic is shocking because of the conference and super tight security) and when we got back to the hotel we got in the lift with this man… whom we later realised wasn’t with a friend, but a security guard! It went a little bit like this:

S: Amz… did that man have a security guard?

A: Yep… did you feel like a dirty backpacker?

S: Yep… did you get the feeling we should have known who he was?

A: Yep…wish we were a little more up-to-date on world political leaders, then we might have!

Then this morning, who do you think was on the front of the newspaper? That’s right…Mister Elevator! We’re pretty exhausted so coming back into a crazy city is almost just a little too much to handle at this stage of the trip! Hanoi traffic is just as bad as Saigon and there’s no one to help tourists cross the road (which probably makes it worse!).

Today we’re off to the Old and French Quarters but it will most likely be a very low key, low energy day before we come home and try to pack…again!

Take care – see you soon!

SQ