Typhoon in cat Ba so back to Hanoi!

(This is a road by the way, and not a river!!!)

After a fantastic time in Sa Pa we headed back to Hanoi on the dreaded night train (not so bad this time around due to getting a sleeper cabin!) and got there at 4.30am before catching the bus/ferry to Cat Ba island at 6am. AFter another arduous journey we eventually arrived and it was well worth it as we stayed in a beach hut literally on a postcard-perfect beach. After a relaxing day in the sun, however, a typhoon hit the island and for the next 2 days we were confined to our hotel room (which flooded in the night, resulting in a standoff with the owners and eventually getting our passports back after we agreed to pay 55,000 dong (just 2 pound for the night)). The weather kept getting worse and we managed to get the only ferry back to Haiphong that wasnt cancelled, although as you can see from the pictures it too hadnt esacaped the storm and our bus acted as more of a boat around the town. We're now back in Hanoi where we are spending a few relaxing days in the luxury of a lovely hotel (and we even have a bath tub, and its clean!) whilst we organise our visas to Laos. We head off again on Tuesday on a 22hour bus journey to Vientiene (capital of Laos), although it'll be well worth it when we cruise down the Mekong river sitting in a tractor tyre inner tube and stopping off along the rapids to have a few beers at the side of the river!

Anyway, we're off to enjoy the nightlife in Hanoi (much better than in truro!) so we'll leave another blog soon hopefully!

Bye for now!