Thien Co Hanoi

... We got sitting with the gang I mentioned before! They were crazy & really good craic! After lunch, we went up on the top deck where we hung out just cahtting a drinking! we stopped off at a cool cave along the way! After that we stopped off at Cat ba Island, where some people got off (including the gang) to stay the night while the rest of us were staying on the boat for the night! After dropping them off we went kayaking for awhile! It was getting dark, so we ...

... Where's Wally' (I'm not sure why). So we had a quick shop around for a suitable top which we then painted in the park, attracting a small crowd who were inexplicably interested in what we were doing. Once completed, Dan donned the outfit and we had a hilarious couple of hours reenacting the perfect Where's Wally picture.
Ah, life is hard!

... junk under my skin. So they called in an orthopedist yesterday and he says he will cut into the wound so it can drain, probably tomorrow evening.

I’m on a first name basis with all the doctors and nurses at the office, Now that’s a sad state of affairs being on a first name basis with the staff at a Dr’s office in only a few days and its 24 hour facility. But I have nothing but high ...

... were a lot more comfortable than the china ones.
The next day we went on another tour to Halong Bay on a boat for 3 days. We were told that 4 days before a boat had capsized and 4 tourists were killed, which at the time didn't alarm us for some random reason!
The boat was cool. There were about 25 of us from the hostel on the same tour. We jumped off the boat, swam, kayaked into a cave, swam in a lagoon and then played drinking games all ...

... operating moving vehicles will anticipate your movements and adjust their speed/direction accordingly! The other thing is soon you will be an old hand at the whole process and will actually be feeling quite comfortable walking IN the streets AMONGST the traffic (many times there is no choice, trust me.)

Lake Hoan Kiem is a picturesque body of water with an interesting legend attached to it, although I won't relate it here. A pathway rings the shoreline, which we followed. As ...

... s because I find it hard to grasp where I am and what's in "my neighborhood". So I will traverse on foot, rain jacket around my waist and a map in hand and try to get to the neighborhood where my school is Van Phuc in the Ba Dinh district. I have photo-ed a map to give you an idea where I am staying and where school is.
The Pearl hotel is across the street from a small free zoo, lake and amusement park. I ventured out into ...

... Mike has great systems for over-coming these sort of problems - he got a taxi for us so we got to the airport in time - then the flight was late leaving - we were part of a huge queue lining up to take off etc etc. Hope you got to your meeting in time Mike. We were sitting next to Chien on the plane so spent most of the flight trying to teach each other our respective languages with the aid of a phrase book. She is 55 - has 2 sons and one grandson - is a primary ...

... have 3 weeks left - we fly from Hong Kong to London on July 1.

(some cool things we have eaten recently: raw peanuts, che (a sweet fruity drink with various bean-corn-coconut based bits, think bubble tea but much tastier in my opinion), fried rice-dough cubes that we totally thought were hashbrowns until we started to eat them, and bia hoi, fresh, dirt cheap locally brewed draught beer that you buy from little stalls, that we discovered you can get to go in your own water bottle.)

... cooked the different parts of the snake and brought the different dishes out. Snake is very nice there was some tough bits, but on the whole was all gd. While we were eating we were downing more rice wine. Very strong stuff, its from 40% up to 90% they say. Went back to the hostel that evening then had a bbq which we meet some guys from up north.They dragged us down to the local irish bar.

... have a peaceful mind and should not boast too much about it." On the way to the old pagoda, favourite stop off points include Sang (Light) Cave, where the surprisingly flat ceiling and floor resemble half an Olympic-sized swimming poor. The cave, which worships Buddha, was bestowed with an inscription by King Le Thanh Tong in the 15th century: "Minh dinh danh lam," which means "famous landscape on the mountain top". Nearby Toi (Dark) Cave, with its weird and wonderful ...