Southward Bound!

We are starting to find our feet in Vietnam. There haven't been anymore scams (that we know of) and we have been treated so nicely by the local people. We have finally stopped accidentally handing over notes worth 100,000 Vietnamese Dong when they actually only asked for 10,000VND. Sometimes, there are just way too many zeros to deal with.

We left busy Hanoi after 3 full days of exploring, eating and trying to avoid being run over. Unfortunately our Ha Long bay tour was cancelled due to the typhoon up North. We will just have to come back and do that another time (oh, what a shame).

We overnight train-ed it to Hue, sleeping in a room of four bunk beds. The train took 14 hours to transport us around 400 km (almost as bad as the Myrtleford train from Melbourne). It rocked us to sleep and was really fun, similar to a sleepover but with complete strangers. The man next to me snored like an airplane coming in to land. Subsequently, the ear plugs have been moved to the hand luggage for easy access!

Hue was a nice change of pace to Hanoi, with plenty of history. Our room cost us $20 and was so amazing that I ended up feeling a tad guilty.

Yesterday we caught the sleeper bus from Hue to Hoi An, which took four hours. This bus was very clever; there were two levels with three rows of full recliner chairs in each. Perfect for an afternoon nap free of the usual neck strain that happens when sleeping on regular buses!

Hoi An is delightful, lit up bridges, markets galore and candles floating down the river. We rode to the beach today on our $1 hire bike and mastered/survived travelling on the right hand side of the road. Call it preparation for our drive through Europe!

The food and the beer has changed as we move further South. The price however remains incredibly cheap throughout. I find it so strange to bargain over whether a beer should cost 40 or 70 cents. There are so many delicious flavours everyday; sweet, sour, chilli, salty. You name it, we've had it and its amazing!

Next, we plan on visiting Danang and then onto Nha Trang. Time is moving too fast and there is so much to see!

Ps- I have worked out how to use manual aperture and shutter speed on the new camera. Hooray!