Buffalo Run Tour, Hanoi to Hoi An.

The short:

So, the tour. I did really and truly enjoy the tour and I would do it again... just. The tour had some amazing perks, such as seeing things that really were off the beaten tourist track, as most people fly over the the route that we travelled. I saw real Vietnamese countryside and lifestyle, which featured road works "Vietnamese style", with the workers using axes and daggers to dig up the road, and farmers in water-submersed fields wearing the traditional rice straw hats, working the fields side-by-side with their anorexic cows. It was great to not have to constantly worry about logistics and be planning all the time, as someone else had done all of the thinking for us, so we could just trundle along knowing that we were ticking all the tourist attraction boxes. The group was also awesome, with a couple of girls that I grew particularly fond of and am looking forward to seeing again in various places throughout my Asia travels. 

But it also had its faults, such as being badly organised and ill-explained, since the "all-inclusive" tour turned out to include only 2 out of 7 dinners and we ran out of bottled water on the second day. In addition, although we had an incredibly sweet tour guide who I really did adore, he was perhaps under-qualified for the responsibility of herding 13 inquisitive Westerners around for 7 days, and there was definitely some bad mis-communication on a number of occasions due to the language barrier. In short, he was lovely but useless. The tour was expensive for the average travelling budget and I must admit that it did not meet my high expectations, based on the amazing reviews that I had read, but I am overall glad that I did it for the people that I met and some of the truly unforgettable experiences that I had, which I would not have encountered otherwise,

I was looking forward to all of the local Vietnamese food that I believed to be part and parcel of the tour, but I must say that I was a little let down. I have always thought of Vietnamese food as being incredibly fresh, light and healthy, but my food experiences (in North Vietnam at least) was not of this. Although mostly tasty, I found that they used a huge amount of oil and the vegetables and meat  quite often tasted greasy. I had also really been looking forward to eating loads of fresh spring rolls, but we were always served deep-fried spring rolls and I didn't see them feature on many menus, which was a little disappointing. There was also a slight lack of variation in the foods that we were served, which became slightly tiresome. Nevertheless, I ate things I would never have ordered in places I would never have eaten, so it was still a positive experience. 

The weather during the Buffalo Run was nothing to write home about, with mostly chilly mornings and nights, and foggy days. To be fair the weather was nothing uncommon in North Vietnam at this time of year, but one (me) always hopes! We had a few hours of sun overall but I am most definitely looking forward to moving further South and soaking up that sun!

The long:

Monday:

We met at 6am at the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel Original. There were 13 of us signed up for the tour, 11 of which were girls, which I thought to myself could be interesting... It could go either way, so we shall see what happens! Our tour guide introduced himself as Johnny and it didn't take long to work out his attitude when it came to what to be expected from our tour, wearing a t-shirt saying "Don't take life so seriously, it isn't permanent". Good times ahead. We boarded the bus where Johnny proceeded to outline our itinerary for the next week and tell us facts and stories about Vietnam. On the last day of our tour we are meant to do a 9-hour motorbike ride to Hoi An, which I have read from lots of reviews was the highlight of most peoples trip, yet Johnny was not selling it well, going on and on about how crazy and dangerous it is and telling us that 30 people die every day from accidents, and on the previous tour that they passed an awful accident where 3 motor cyclists had been blown open and their internal organs and blood spilled out in every direction on the road. Charming. However, I shall not be deterred! It very quickly became apparent that Johnny has a mild dislike towards the Chinese, to quote, "I fucking hate the Chinese", which I found hilarious. He then went on to slag them off, telling us that because they all want boys, they will soak and eat baby girls in some kind of voodoo magic fashion in the hope of achieving long life (I'm going to choose not to believe that one). We also drove past skinned dogs grilling in hot street food stalls, which was a little unnerving, as I then kept picturing our 3 little doggies being served up for dinner (although I guess it really is no different to eating a hog roast when you rationalise it).

We arrived at Cuc Phuong National Park at 11:30am and made our way straight to lunch, which was fine by me as we had all been up for over 6 hours so I was pretty ravenous. My first Vietnamese meal consisted of boiled chicken (on the bone) with boiled potatoes;

stir-fried beef with onions, which was so tough it was practically unchewable;

steamed rice; morning glory vegetables and a fried egg. Overall, it filled a spot, but I was looking forward to hopefully trying a couple of tastier dishes over the coming week.

After lunch we ventured into the National Park's endangered species primate and turtle rescue centre, which contained animals rescued mostly from illegal trade with China and from Vietnamese black markets. The monkeys were adorable and strangely full of energy, swinging from branch to branch at the speed of light showing off for their appraising audience. 

^ This orange legend was particularly entertaining.

^ I have never seen monkeys with such long tails before, but apparently that's common to monkeys in this part of the world.

^ Look at the boo booooo!!!

^ When they had a cuddle I almost died.

Since the majority of the monkeys were bred in captivity and have never lived in the wild, the centre nurses them back to health in cages before moving them into a much larger open space in the hope that they learn to survive in the wild and, after a set period of time, then either release them into the forest or move them back into cages for closer care. It was so moving to see how much the workers cared about the animals and reminded me of how many good people there are in the world. Next, our guide told us about the turtles, which are fast depleting due to being hunted by the "super predator", i.e. the human.

The centre tries to repopulate the endangered species and incubates the eggs.

^ I even saw Magic Ninja chilling in Vietnam; great to see he's doing so well after so many years.

We said goodbye to our guide and grabbed a bike each, and commenced a 17km bike ride through the National Park. It was very gruelling with a huge amount of steep uphill roads; we all experienced the true meaning of "sweating your head off" and it was an unbelievably good workout. We stopped halfway for a spot of green tea and some Vietnamese sesame seed candy bars,

before embarking on a short hike up to the "Pre-historic Man's Cave", which is a cave containing several ancient graves that have been excavated but whose burial sites are still worshipped, with offerings laid around them.

We climbed up to the absolute top where the air became incredibly hot and musty, where we spotted a few bats, along with some other unappreciated friends/(monsters):

Having stopped biking for an hour or so the thought that there was still 10km left was a rather horrible one, and a number of us definitely considered hopping on the bus for the rest of the journey. But I'm proud to say that we powered on as I actually enjoyed the second half much more, having finally mastered how to use the gears, and we arrived hot and happy at our hotel a little over an hour later, although my knees weren't quite so enthusiastic. 

The place where we were staying only had power between 6-10pm so we had to wait for the hot water to come on. We had some beers (yes, I'm going to have to learn to like beer) and waited for dinner to be served, which thankfully wasn't too long of a wait as we were all STARVING. Dinner was a much more impressive affair than lunch, although it was much of the same, with fried slices of chicken breast; stir-fried beef; deep-fried pork; steamed rice; morning glory, and an omelette. I just ate the rice and chicken with soya sauce but what made the meal was the addition of salted roasted peanuts, which featured heavily in my mini bowl for the perfect saucy, mushy, crunchy combination. I have decided that these (stupidly) small eating bowls actually really help to limit portion control, as you stop to think every time you fill up, so could perhaps end up being a real revelation and saviour for me! We chilled and chatted for a few more hours before rotating to take FREEZING cold showers; the dream of hot water splashing over my cold, dried sweat body quickly vanished. It was only 9:30pm but with the lights turning off at 10pm and a long, exhausting day behind us we all very happily turned in for an early and good night's sleep. The hotel rooms didn't have any blinds or shutters for the windows so we were really just sleeping in the National Park with a roof over our heads, which was a little daunting as there were some huge Huntsman spiders kicking around and there had been a number of screams throughout the evening. I'm pleased to say that I braved it though and ended up having a great night's sleep, waking up at 7:30am the following morning.

Tuesday:

We began a 3km hike through the National Park to the 1000 Year Old Tree at 9:30am. Despite it being rather chilly when we set off, we were soon all damp with sweat and stripping off layers as the hike was essentially ALL uphill for a good hour and a half.

It was cool to trek through the Vietnamese jungle but I'm not entirely sure whether the level of strenuousness justified the "reward":

At least it was excellent exercise and the majority of the journey back to base was downhill. It was also good bonding time for our group, which has been getting along rather nicely despite the overwhelming oestrogen levels. Naturally there were a few people that I was more drawn to but with only 1 of our 7 day tour complete I knew that it would be interesting to look back at the end of the week and see how the friendships changed, as they always do!

I also really appreciated this rather amazing twisted tree trunk:

We chucked our bags on to the bus and travelled for an hour and a half to Trang An, where we had a lunch of,,, you guessed it, chicken, beef, spring rolls, tofu, rice and morning glory. A varied diet indeed. 

After lunch we toured Trang An by boat, otherwise known as "Halong Bay on land", which was stunningly beautiful. 

Tiny little Vietnamese women rowed us for just under 3 hours around this bay, using both their arms AND LEGS, which is absolutely something I had never seen before.

About an hour into our boat trip we hopped off to see a temple,

which had huge koi carp swimming just in front of it, hoping to be fed.

We then travelled through unbelievably shallow ceiling-ed caves, having to swing each and every way to avoid being taken out by the sharp edges that hung down. 

We made a pit-stop at another temple, climbing an endless amount of stairs upwards only to have to go down them on the other side of the mountain to reach the temple, which is apparently the oldest temple in the area (they all look the same to me).

At least there was a nice view at the top.

Our boats only docked back where we started off once darkness had fallen, which was a little eerie but pretty cool. One of the other groups then told us that their lady had apparently stopped rowing half way back and demanded "big tip", to which they had refused (due to the rudeness), and so they had rowed themselves back, which I thought was fairly fantastic. The boat tour was a great way to get to know the people in your boat much better and I really, really enjoyed the whole experience.

After a short bus ride to a nearby hotel, the 13 of us took it in turns to use the 1 shower with us agreeing between ourselves that half of us would wash our hair that evening and the other half the following morning, to conserve the hot water. Dinner was served mid-way through the chaos, which thankfully featured stir-fried vegetables and FISH much to all of our delight. At 9pm the local sleeper bus arrived to take us to Phong Na. We all trundled out with our luggage, only to find that the baggage compartments were already filled to the brim, which made us all a little nervy. In the end we took most of the bags on the bus, which were then left in the aisle blocking everyone into their beds. I couldn't stop thinking of what good ol' UK Health & Safety would have had to say about that. 

To be honest the beds were of a decent enough size and the journey really wasn't that bad, despite the driver turning all of the main lights on and off whenever he needed to find something, and beeping pretty much continuously for 10 hours straight. However, I did wake up at 1am to the sound of what I believe was a dog literally dying a slow and painful death, screaming its head off, and looked out of the window to see a load of men in uniform with torches going through all of the cardboard boxes that had taken up all of the baggage space. I seized the opportunity to go to the toilet and must admit that the goings-on looked really rather dodgy, so I kept my eyes on the ground. In the morning I found out that we had been at the check point for 2 hours as our bus drivers had indeed been trying to illegally smuggle something and had then proceeded to try to bribe the officials; sad I missed the commotion! I slept the night through till daylight, which was a welcomed surprise, and I didn't feel too groggy at all. It seemed the sleeper bus was a success!

Wednesday:

Waaaah, our first day of rain, and we're meant to go swimming today!

After dropping off our bags and a quick breakfast at the hotel we got on a bus to Road Number 20, a historical site where Johnny explained the significance of the road during the Vietnam war. Apparently the road was vital for trade between North and South Vietnam, and consequently was a major target for the American B52 bombers. Since all of the men were sent to fight in battle, it was left to women to repair the road as best they could. There is a cave called the "8 Lady Cave", so named because 8 women could fit in and take cover when the area was being bombed. One day the cave was hit and the 8 women hiding became trapped beneath 100 tons of fallen rubble. They died 5 days later from dehydration since no one was able to rescue them. The cave is still commemorated to this day with the ability to light incense and say a prayer, and lay pretty flowers and other offerings. 

The tale goes that one of the women who was trapped and died was due to get married just a few days later, which is just another one of those tragically sad stories from the war. 

From Road Number 20 we drove to Paradise Cave, within one of the largest National Parks in Vietnam, which was simply breathtakingly beautiful. It is the second biggest but the longest cave, spanning 71km in length. It was only discovered recently, in 2005, and has quickly become an immensely popular attraction, for rather obvious reasons.

Some parts of he cave had water dripping down from the ceiling which is how all the lines form in the limestone.

These pictures in no way do the cave justice, as it's impossible to capture the vastness of the cave, the colours and the number of amazing formations visible in every direction. I know it will sound strange but I found that the place felt quite monstrous, not in a scary way, but in a "if I touch the formations gooey sludge will string from my fingers" kind of way. Unfortunately, we were only able to walk 2km into the cave as after that oxygen masks are required, so we turned around and made our way back to daylight and for a spot of lunch. 

We drove deep into the jungle and walked along a riverside on makeshift bamboo bridges and wobbly rocks to reach our eating spot, 

^ The green giant.

which was an entirely secluded spot under a canopy, right next to the fast-flowing river rapids, where we sat and ate on mats with two Vietnamese men flitting around us serving us amazing food.

Once lunch had settled we walked along more bamboo bridges, rocks and jungle trails to reach some natural springs for an afternoon swim.

^ Johnny literally runs and jumps around like he is a monkey, but he grew up in the true Vietnamese countryside and I guess that's the kind of skills you acquire living in that kind of habitat.

I was a massive pussy as the weather was grey and the water cold, so nothing was doing a good job of convincing me to strip off and get hypothermia, but a few of the others braved it!

We drove back to our hotel and had some time to relax and take our first great shower in a few days. We met an hour before dinner and walked to "Easy Tiger", a nearby hostel, for some pre-dinner drinks. 

A friend from the LPC currently in Vietnam had Facebook messaged me and told me that a future colleague of mine (starting at W&C in Feb 2015), who he had met the night before, was staying at Easy Tiger, so I tracked him down and said hello. He seemed like a nice, normal guy and is also the first boy that I have met from my intake so that was a really lovely addition to my night! For dinner we hopped on the bus to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, which we quickly realised Johnny had wanted to attend for its karaoke, as the food definitely wasn't worth the drive. We had a super fun night though as a group and discovered some great hidden talent. It was someone called Seamus' birthday so it was free shots all round!

We got back and made a bee-line for bed as we each had our own double bed, which was obviously an extreme luxury compared to our previous nights sleep, and since we had an early start.

Thursday:

We departed from our hotel at 7:30am and drove for 3 hours to Vinh Moc Tunnels, 1 of the 2 tunnels in Vietnam (the other being Chu Chi Tunnels). This tunnel was used for protecting the locals, whereas the other tunnel was used mainly for terrorists.

They started digging the tunnels in 1965 and it took them over 10 years (after the war ended) to finish them. They span 41km in length with 3 stories, the first story (and the only one open to visitors) being 12m deep. 600 people lived in the tunnel, all of whom survived the war, although must became deaf due to the air pressure so far below ground, whilst everything in the area above ground was obliterated. 17 babies were born in the tunnels, who were consequently deaf and dumb, with one still surviving, who we had the great fortune to meet.

We went down into the first level of tunnels and saw the size of the cubbyholes dedicated to each family:

The tunnels were obviously very low for us whities,

but were clearly an appropriate height for the Vietnamese at the time. Nonetheless it would still have been unbelievably claustrophobic and, to be honest, I'm surprised that there weren't more deaths caused by lack of oxygen with so many people in such a confined space. It was horribly humid and I dread to think what the conditions must have been like in summer when it is actually hot, and when you add in the amount of body heat that must have been emitted. The tunnels mark an incredible achievement for the Vietnamese and proved to me just how capable and resourceful human beings can be. 

We then drove 45 minutes to visit the De-Militarised Zone (DMZ), where we had lunch in a very local restaurant, that served a few new numbers, which everyone was greatly appreciative of.

After lunch we drove a short bus journey to the village of Dong Ha, the most heavily bombed area during the Vietnamese war and, subsequently, the area most affected by unexploded munitions and resultant accidents. The Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) is the main charity that helps to locate the unexploded bombs, contain them and detonate them, to make the area safe for the locals. Part of our tour was to meet some of the aid workers, have them explain to us their mission and the process that they undertake, 

^ An unexploded bomb.

and then for 1 of us to actually get to push the button to blow up an identified bomb. 

That person being ME (and Peta).

We pushed the button and watched the explosion a good 100m away.

The cows most definitely got a shock! The aid workers then collected the shrapnel and allowed us each to keep a piece as a souvenir.

At this point Ronnie and I were desperate for a wee, so Johnny asked knocked on someone's door and asked if we could use their "bathroom". I took some secret snaps of her home to show what true Vietnamese countryside living quarters are like,

i.e. the absolute bare minimum; it was just concrete, a bed, a stove and a hole in the ground. It is easy to imagine and then quickly ignore this kind of life, but actually seeing it and its functionality and comparing it to one's own is a very different matter. I won't make some big speech about how I plan to give up all of my niceties and donate all of my money to charity because the reality is that we very quickly settle back into our luxurious lives when we return home (everything is relative after all), but it did make me very thankful for the life that I was born into and grateful for everything that I have. So thank you parents!

We then went to a small museum dedicated to mine action in the area to pick up some hard facts about the war and its devastating effects. 

I learnt that Dong Ha was the most heavily bombed and shelled area in the history of mankind, with more than 350,000 tons of bombs deployed in the tiny area alone, where 83% of the land remains contaminated by ERW, as can be seen by the accident density shown on the map below:

The residents of Dong Ha live in daily fear that an unexploded mine will go off, with more than 30 injuries occurring per month. They are often discovered by farmers in fields but can be found literally anywhere, with one of the most recent and scary findings being in a school, which was then shut down until the bomb had been detonated. Children are taught how to recognise munitions and what they should do if they locate one. They are even set classwork to ingrain such information into their heads:

"Let's call the hotline number to report on UXO sightings":

"You should do like this whenever seeing a UXO":

Worlds apart from the "draw your family" tasks we used to get set. I found the day very moving and emotional and I am pleased to have learnt so much of the pain and history behind Vietnam today.

We spent the 2-hour drive to Hue where we would spend the next 2 days mulling over all the awful and important information that we had learnt that day. Thus the free beer awaiting us on the bar when we arrived at the hostel was most welcomed by us all, and it didn't take long to lift group spirits.

We had a quick freshen up before meeting again in the bar area for dinner and some heavy drinking.

The traveller route lived up to its reputation with David, my fellow future W&C trainee, also arriving in Hue that evening for the next 2 nights, so we bonded in a way that is only possible when alcohol is involved.

At around 11pm we visited my first true Asian nightclub, "Brown Eyes", which far exceeded my expectations and was amazingly good fun.

I had such a great night and it was really good for sealing the group friendship together; there was even a little romance involved that had been building up all week, so that was really sweet. Raj and I left just before 2am and had a hilarious journey home, involving our first "banh my", essentially a Vietnamese subway that was served by the cutest little lady in her pyjamas:

It really is amazing what taste explosions such little and small equipment can produce; she whipped open a baguette, swiftly started frying an egg and simultaneously stuffing the bread full with different veggies (as I was a little afraid of the meat quality) and some kind of delicious paste. It was topped off with some chili sauce and, voila, an incredible Vietnamese sandwich was created. Raj and I followed Johnny's directions to the hostel but they did not quite take us to where we needed to go. A bicycle peddler had been stalking us shouting prices for a good few minutes so upon him confirming that he knew where DK Hostel was, we gave up and hopped in for a ride. I'm not even joking it would have been faster to crawl, bless him, and he had absolutely no idea where he was going. Raj and I were in hysterics as he tried several streets until we just asked him to take us back to the club so that Johnny could re-direct us. I crawled into bed at just gone 2am a very happy (and rather tiddly) bunny.

Friday:

Yay, the sun is out! With a slight hangover we all gathered together at 11am for a trip to the beach. But, first, we popped by Thien Mu pagoda, the tallest pagoda in Vietnam for a quick explore.

The view wasn't too bad either:

Beach tiiiiiime!!! The sun Gods could not have been kinder to us, blessing us with our first day of sun on the day that we had planned to go to the beach. Finally, some good luck. We went to a stunning private beach and I was out on the sand soaking up the rays within seconds.

We all frollicked in the sea, which was actually really rather rough with huge waves taking everyone out, played volleyball and football, read, chatted, drank beers and ate yummy food for a few hours. 

I got my first coconut of Asia, which made me super happyyyyy.

It was the perfect chill day and we went home a tiny bit browner and much happier. Once we'd all cleaned up we headed out for an Indian(?!) meal. I have to say that I had my doubts since I would never usually choose food not local to the area but it was actually really bloody good. 

We split up and a few of us took to the shops to see if there were any cheap goodies we could bag. I managed to get myself 2 pairs of trousers and a pair of shorts, all altered to exactly how I wanted them to sit, for £8. Ridiculous. It makes me feel bad for haggling as what's 50p to me at the end of the day but I suppose it is worth much more to them and is still a decent profit margin (but still). Afterwards, Ronnie and I walked back to the hotel. We passed a table outside a restaurant with some candles and other bits and bobs on it. I spotted some eclairs and subconsciously moved straight towards it. I was just about to pluck myself a sweetie when I realised it was a blooming SHRINE; the waiter gasped as I realised what I had been about to do and I ran away laughing and mortified. Thankfully he found it funny too. A close call indeed. With a very early start and little sleep the previous night we were all safely tucked in by midnight.

Saturday:

I hate dorms. 30 minutes before my alarm was due to go off the room started buzzing alive. It drives me mental. Anyway, today was our big 8-hour motorbike ride over the Hai Van Pass to Hoi An... Shame it was raining, but at least we looked super sexy as we hopped on to our bikes in bright-coloured ponchos. 

"Our lives are in your haaaands Ronnie":

The giant and midget began their adventure together. Ronnie was a little shaky at first but really quickly got the hang of it and I felt very safe behind her. I was literally the eyes in the back of her head twisting round every 5 seconds checking over my left shoulder that no traffic was coming and telling her when we were all clear to overtake; the perfect team, one might say. We drove out of the the town of Hue;

through the countryside;

next to beautiful mountainous lakes;

through hill-side jungle,

and on Highway 1, renowned for being one of the most dangerous roads in Vietnam, and it didn't take long to figure out why, with motorbikes, lorries, buses and bikes all clamouring to overtake at every possible opportunity, regardless of what was coming in the opposite direction.

This is where things became a little hectic, with 2 of the girls in our group speeding off at 80km/h so that Johnny had to drive full throttle to try to catch them and bring them back to where the rest of us were waiting, during which time it transpired that the 2 people driving at the back of our group had acquired a flat tire and were miles behind. The rest of us were stuck in the middle, waiting for Johnny to return from Mission No.1, so that we could inform him of Rescue Mission No.2. Meanwhile, our tummies grumbled, and grumbled, and grumbled. Over an hour later we were finally all gathered together in one spot. Great, so which of all these restaurants is it Johnny? Nope, we're hiking. We hiked 30 minutes uphill getting eaten alive, before crossing a river with an incredibly forceful current and slippery rocks to reach our food. 

Thankfully, it was worth it. It was a stunning setting and so amazingly unique. I soaked up every second of it. Plus, there was food to feed the 5,000!

After lunch a few of the girls hopped in the water for a dip. I didn't fancy getting wet and having to dry off with no towel in the space of 15 minutes so I was happy to watch, but had we had more time I would definitely have gotten involved as it was such a beautiful place to swim.

Then it was time to switch drivers, my turn! I am fairly proud to say that I quickly got the hang of it, although turning left was a bit of an issue for the first 15 minutes; my body simply wouldn't allow me to turn the wheel left! The sun had begun to set and as we climbed the mountains and the cool air began to seep into my bones, making me shiver as I drove.

The good news is that what goes up must come down, so it wasn't long before we were winding our way back down the other side. I drove us through the sunset and into the city of Da Nang, which was the Vietnamese version of Disney World, with pretty lit up neon bridges, Ferris wheels and blinking hotels popping up here, there and everywhere. It was very cool. I absolutely loved driving at night and, despite fearing for our lives a number of times, I had gotten the hang of beeping and when to overtake, and really enjoyed the busy-ness of it all. It was fun zooming along as a unit, zig-zagging by the Vietnamese trying to keep up with the person in front of you in our group. I will admit that the huge roundabouts were rather daunting, but Johnny would literally wait till we were all together and it was just a case of "when Johnny goes, you go"; 8 motorbikes all sticking together is hard to infiltrate, so everyone else was forced to wait or make their way around us. I can imagine we looked rather hilarious, but it worked, and we pulled up in front of our hostel all in one piece just before 7pm. My whole body ached from sitting so tensely for the last 8 hours so a warm shower and cold beer (yep, you heard), was absolute bliss. It was definitely my favourite experience of the tour and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. We all agreed that at the start of the day we would never have thought ourselves capable of doing some of the things that we were forced to do on the road, so it felt like an amazing achievement as well as a thoroughly enjoyable one.

We met at "Hola Taco", a Mexican(?!) restaurant for our final group meal altogether. Once we'd ordered I realised Johnny was missing and asked the others where he was, only to be told that he was already on the way to the airport for his flight back to Hanoi!!! This was just another example of Johnny and the tour operators failing to tell us what was going on, and we were all a bit gutted as, first and foremost, I wanted to say bye to him and Ronnie and I had even been discussing what gift we could all give him but, also, at the end of the day we had paid for a 7 day tour and this was only the evening of Day 6, so I think we fairly felt a little cheated. Nevertheless we ended up having a very tasty last meal, despite my hesitations. 

After dinner half the group, including myself, headed to Sunflower Hostel for some drinks, before joining the rest of the group at "Why Not Bar" (pretty great name!), where the night soon became a little messy. It was 100,000 Vietnamese dong (£3) to acquire a stamp for unlimited drinks for the evening, which pretty much everyone there had taken advantage of, so laughter, dancing and debauchery could be seen in abundance. It was a fun last night and I ended up only crawling into bed at 3:30am, which can surely only be the result of a good time. 

Thank you Buffalo Run tour for some incredible experiences, amazing new friends and developing my confidence.