From the far

Fortunately last night I got completely hammered. Fortunate because late in the evening I

a) Was given a shot of ‘snake wine’ to drink (read: ‘rotting dead serpent carcass in a jar of alcohol’) – tasted just like a rotting dead serpent in a jar of alcohol. Kinda rusty. You could see the scales floating.

b) Had my ankle lacerated by flying broken glass – bled profusely for about an hour, had some bar woman stick Marlboro Red tobacco on the cut to stem the flow (???!!) and;

c) Danced like a monkey.

Mmmmm... rotting snake wine anyone? Yum yum.

Luckily the obscene quantities of alcohol I had consumed earlier on in the evening did its work and numbed any pain (until this morning that is when my stinging ankle woke me up – thank goodness for Spanish mega mg ibuprofen). Luckily as well that one of our new friends, Jo was a nurse. She got very keen with her bandages and all was well. Have had to have a visit from the black doctor three times already today. Rice wine, beer, long island ice tea and snake wine do not mix well.

View from Monkey Island, Halong Bay

Spent the last few days at Halong Bay, a beautiful area of amazing limestone stacks which we sailed around. Our cabin was absolute luxury – wonderful big power shower, gorgeous white linen, air con, and demi-private balcony out the back of the boat for sunbathing. The seafood was delicious – yummy squid, octopus and fish. Painful karaoke. Even more painful rice wine. Potent as slibovitz.

We previously had a great time in Sapa, especially because we successfully managed to hijack another honeymoon – lovely Katrine and Arnaut the Belgians. All went wonderfully wrong when we got mixed up with Mimi the card shark tour guide who dared us to drink loads of rice wine and then somehow got the Belgians to strip naked and run round the homestay. The best Belgians ever.

Obligatory Cheesy Mountain Views / Us Shot

Onwards now down south on sleeper bus tonight. Edging our way slowly slowly towards Saigon down the coast. Apparently there was a tornado down there on Monday so still trying to get info on all that.

SO hard to write this post. SO a big hangover. SO going to go and have a snoozzzzzzzzze.

Dad, hope you had a really lovely bday. Glad you got the email. So sorry we were unable to call you. No reception in the middle of the sea!! Will try and call you as soon as we can. xxxxx