We love Vietnam

Sorry - no photos again, we've left our camera lead in the hotel.

Anyway, this is just a quick note to say how much we're loving it in Vietnam. It's a very chilled out easy country to be in compared with China. I don't think we'd realised how difficult we found it in China with the constant language barrier and squat toilets!

Sa Pa was lovely. We went for a couple of walks around the villages there, all very easy and accessible. The first walk in particular was great, we had a big group of local women in traditional dress following us all the way to the village (about 6km), holding our hands on the steep bits and chatting away the whole way - well worth the inevitable hard-sell of embroideries at the end of the trip! (Needless to say the one who'd picked on Josh did particularly badly from the deal)

Hanoi is very hot, and we've resorted to choosing between restaurants, shops and tourist attractions by the quality of their air-conditioning. We've had some really great food, and the shopping is great. We've jettisoned another book which leaves space for at least two more souveniers! Hanoi is the quintessential south-east Asian city. Motorbikes zipping around everywhere constantly peeping their horns, a lovely combination of traditional and colonial architecture and incessant badgering from hawkers (Hanoi has to be the only place I've been to where the taxi drivers hail you, rather than the other way around).

Getting the night train to Da Nang tonight, for a few days in Hoi An. We're in a cheaper hotel in Hoi An which means they give away free internet rather than charging a small fortune for it (20 cents a minute? Shame on you Hilton!). So I absolutely promise to uplaod some piccies soon, as soon as we've had our fill of lazing by the pool :)