I survived the back of the motorbike!

Had a horribly early start this morning to get to the boat by 7.30 but it was worth it. It was a bit chilly and misty at first so the first bit of the trip down the river was a bit eery. We docked at some random bank and climbed up to walk through a tiny village to a couple of temples. There were loads of fruit trees all over the place and it looked really pretty! The temple was really old too and was next to the river. On the way there some random old boy shook the hand of each of us as he passed. Very random.

Then we got back on the boat and sailed on a bit more to the next temple. This one was in an even smaller village and was made of stone, surrounded by jungle type plants.

We then had lunch on the boat whilst sailing back towards Hanoi. After lunch I sat up on the top for an hour or two basking in the sun - it finally came out! It was really warm and sunny and finally the sky was blue! There was a lot to see on the river. The surrounding countryside looked pretty cool, and there were lots of boats passing. The trend here seems to be to row with your feet rather than your hands! There were also fishermen and people transporting stuff all over the place. Some of the boats looked like they were about to sink at any moment and most seemed to be people's houses as well as their livelihood.

Just before Hanoi we stopped at a ceramics village. We got put into carts pulle by water buffalo to take us to the market. There is so much to buy there but I had to resist most things as I have no space and really no need for stuff like that. I did get a couple of small coasters though.

After that we sailed back down to the wharf. A couple of times on the boat two of the women were dressed up in traditional outifts singing traditional songs which was nice.

It wasn't bad considering I paid less than a tenner for the whole thing, including lunch!

Right now I am sitting in an internet cafe surrounded by western kids who look about 10 years old. They are playing computer games and swearing constantly. Lovely!