delayed flight

when we got to Singapore airport, we discovered that our already tight flight plan had just been abolished as our Singapore-Sydney flight was delayed by 2 hours meaning that we would miss our Sydney-Melbourne flight without a doubt. this bad news just about set the tone for the day. as we hadn't booked all through the same air line, quantas would not compensate us at all! no offer to change flight, no room for the night, nothing! we were just dumped in Sydney with nowhere to stay. we ended up having to fork out $250 for the flight and $200 for a room + taxi to and from the hotel. this sort of money would have had to last us 2-3 weeks so we are now very much out of pocket :-( 

we did make it to Melbourne in the end though if not a little late and we are going through the process of sorting out our holiday insurance with no help from Quantas what so ever! 

anyway we are in australia safe and absolutely loving it! staying with Matt and steph is great! and we even went on a camping weekend with them which was oodles of ozzy fun! 

so now we are looking for jobs to help our finance situation. the blogs will not be half as interesting from now until june so will probably start writting again then. i might even get dan to write a few! lots of love to everyone xxxx

hostel hunting

When it got to 07:00 am we decided to make our way into the city using the super cheap, super effective underground system. When in the centre we found our hostel about 3kms away from where we were dropped off. It was a small scummy place on the 4th floor but it only cost about 5 pounds each (which is really good for Singapore) we waited and waited and waited in the reception for someone to check us in and finally fell to sleep on the couch. we woke up at 10:30 to find that there was still nobody at work! we waited until about 11:30 and decided to leave. nobody was manning the building, anyone come get into the building and leave un noticed, and it generally seemed like a place where we may catch a disease of some sort.

 

We wondered up the street to the next one to find a friendly woman behind the desk willing to check us in to her place for around the same price! It was also quite a weird place though, an open air dorm on the roof top with all the noise of the traffic (basically a terrace that has been scuffed up a bit and someone crammed about 10 bunk beds onto it) our room was about 3m by 3m with 3 bunk beds in it we were crammed in like sardines and unfortunately shared dorm with a rather pungent smelling individual. None the less this was our home fo the next 2 days and oh what a good sleep we had that day!

 

We went to the zoo which was a delightful day out. its like a safari park which you go round on foot. everything was so free range and you would look up to find monkeys playing in the trees above your head. We went to all the shows including feeding the polar bears (which were in a tank thank god because they were huge!!!!), the elephant show (a bit commercial but i love all elephants so loved it) the jungle fights back show ( a cringing experience where we endured half an hour of terrible acting about how humans are destroying wild habitats, a worthy subject but just awful awful acting!) and finally the sea lion show which reminded me of one of my favorite memories at sea world Florida with a performance from these amazing animals! we also saw white tigers, pygmy hippos, white rhinos, chimps, orangutans, giraffe, lion all that you would expect from a good quality zoo. after the zoo we tested Singapore's finest and cheapest foods at one of the infamous food markets. sprig rolls all the way.  

hay long bay

on our 3rd day in Hanoi we went on a day trip to visit Hay long bay. its an amazing place, so picturesque and peaceful, we just sailed around all day stopping at caves fishing docks and islands and trying to stay warm, yes the weather was still bad but at least it didnt rain! this was also the point when i realised that i had no warm clothes whatso ever so wore........1 vest top, 2 t-shirts, 2 long sleeve t-shirts, a zip up jumper, 2 scarfs, 2 pairs of trousers, leggings, 2 pairs of socks etc i was still cold!!! the last few months of sunning and constant sweating must have turned me into a wimp! 

Nonetheless it was a lovely way to spend the day. I kept imagining seeing Jeromy Clarkson come zooming round one of the islets in his home made motor bike boat. 

After some last minuit shopping and organising, we were ready for our flight to singapore. We landed at 11:30 pm so decided to wait around until 06:00am at the air port so that we could save ourselves 20 pound on acomedation and 15 pounds on transport. This seemed like a flawless plan but the reality hit at 04:00am when i had had no sleep and nothing but a cold floor to sleep on. it is so hot in Singapore so everywhere blasts the aircon out at a rediculous level making sleeping conditions unbarable. I gave up and bought a hot chocolate in one of the cafe's and fell asleep in the chair whilst clutching my hot drink. They didnt seem to mind so i just stayed there all night. When dan finally woke up from his position on the floor he came and joined me, that boy can sleep anywhere!!! in the early hours, we chatting to a retired american RAF man who had alot of exciting stories to share and to stop us from going insane!

vietnam

Sorry that it has been so long. Being in the land of the Viet Kong meant that face book was banned so there wasn't much point of going on the internet. So where were we????? Nah Trang???

Its a nice place but like i said, its rubbish when it rains. We decided to take it easy, read, sleep and generally be lazy for 2 days, before continuing our journey to Hoian.

The night buses are an ingenious invention!! basically bunk beds on a coach at slight angles so that as many as possible can be crammed in. The only down side that i can think of is the fact that they are so narrow that you cant turn on your side and they are made from leather so that when you wake up, your face is glued to the seat and makes that horrible burning feeling all over your skin when you move. Apart from that they were brilliant and saved us a lot of money on accommodation. We met a nice American (didn't know they existed) (joke) called Joe we actually continued to bump into him in every destination and sleep in the next bed to him on 3 different occasions, this was either coincidence or we had a friendly stalker on our hands.

We rocked up in Hoian at about 05:00 am in the rain and about 1 mile out of town. The walk was long and wet with our backpacks on and we were fed up from a bumpy nights sleep. I could see that we were in a bad position to get ripped off for a room so I took control with a soggy moody Dan following me. We eventually got sorted with a niceish room in the center of town that resembled a bathroom with entire walls covered in tiles.

After a sleep we went shopping and found a bargain place to get a suit tailor made for Dan. I also fell in love with a design of a coat so they threw that in as well as 2 shirts and shoes (all tailor fitted and made) for around 60 pounds. Absolute bargain!! after a day or 2 in Hoian we realized that there really inst much more to do then shop and we could feel ourselves crumbling and making excuses as to why we need certain clothes, shoes etc so we scarpered sharpish.

We visited Hue for 6 hours on our way to Hanoi which was lovely, we saw many temples which were reminiscent of Chinese temples. Unfortunately, a lot of them had been bombed during the war so it was a contrast of feelings between beauty of architect and anxiety of destruction.

We reached Hanoi the next day with Joe and went in search of a hotel. I think we have just about got the hang of dealing with hagglers now and we approached the situation expertly. Not showing too much aggression but still being firm. saying "would you kindly piss off". Anyway we discovered that the lonely planet lies about the prices of hotels so we took the situation into our own hands and we found a top notch place with a tv and everything! for a reasonable price, (after haggling with the giggly 14 year old girl on reception.)

Hanoi is an amazing place, it is so easy to get lost so if you have enough time it is great to just wonder around all the little streets taking in the sights and the smells. One thing did shock me about Hanoi and that was, driving down the street we saw a pile of dead dogs! still fully intact, heads, tails and all. we asked the taxi driver and they were indeed being prepared to go into a stew or soup or something! we didn't see any crickets so Claire and ed, the bets off! (we had a dare that if Dan ate dog, i would have to eat cricket!) we saw all sorts of other gruesome foods on the way like brain, balls, intestine spider etc none of which looked in the least bit appertising. i think i will stick to exotic fruits.