Hong Kong- My favourite place on my travels..

I made a friend on the plane on the way to Hong Kong and she introduced me to her friends and we all went to see the giant Buddha together.  Her friends were great from London and they loved to travel so we got on great.

Yes the Buddha was giant.

The scenery was beautiful too:

After my great Buddha adventure I had to leave my new friends as they were only in Hong Kong for the day on the way back to the UK and bussed it to my fancy 4 star hotel. Yes I booked a 4 star hotel for my backpacking adventures! I looked online and found most of the hotels/hostels were very small with no windows so I needed room!

The next day it was raining so I ventured to the free History museum of Hong Kong. Which turned out to be awesome. It depicted how Hong Kong came to be right from the geology all the way to present day.

After my fab day at the museum I went to the science museum next door. That was also good but not as great as the first museum.

I then wandered around eating amazing food and looking a the crazy city before going back to enjoying my room.

The next day I went to explore central. This again was great with lovely street art:

And temples:

I then went to the Hong Kong Zoo, which was free! Everything in Hong Kong is free to do.

I ended up in Hong Kong version of the botanical gardens which had a cold greenhouse dedicated to the plants of the UK... It was cold and had owls and rabbit statues all over it. (Didn't understand the flamingo)

I then wandered through the Hong kong park which was massive:

It also hosted a massive aviary. Which again was free:

It was definitely my favourite thing to do in Hong Kong and there were loads of exotic birds flying around you. 

Then I wandered through more of the park:

and ended up at the flagstaff museum of Tea Ware. Which again was free and was about the history of tea and had loads of teapots in it.

I then had some more lovely food and went back to watch some netflix.

The next day I went to the Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok areas. I preferred central. I started of in another park and then walked to the golden Olympic flame.

I then boarded the star ferry to take me to the Tsim sha Tsui Island and saw the iconic Hong Kong skyline.

I then stumbled upon a Jet Lee statue (he's massive here):

I then wondered around the sopping district only to discover that most of Kong Kong is made up of massive shopping malls mostly with designer brands. Don't know where the normal people shop? 

I then waited for a light show at the harbour:

The skyline was incredible but the actual light show was rubbish. It was set to music and nothing much happened but the view of the harbour at night was worth it. 

I then went back to my room before making my way to the airport the next day to go to Singapore!

I loved Hong Kong, most things are free, the food is good and there's so much to see and do. However, if your going clothes shopping bring your credit card cause its all designer!

Halong Bay- AMAZING!!!

After leaving my holiday buddy behind in a bit of a frenzy because I couldn't find my purse and lost half my stuff, but eventually it was sorted and I was picked up by the tour company to go on my tour of Halong bay.

I met my companions on board. i was the youngest but I was not going to be deterred as the rest were really friendly. There was two australian couples, a new zealander, 3 people from Chile and some Chinese people.

On the way to the boat we stopped to buy fresh Oysters for dinner while waiting for the boat. There were loads of different boats in the bay and we had to take a row boat to ours.

My cabin was quite big with a double bed and a shower and beautiful views of Halong Bay.

We didn't have long to settle in as we had lunch waiting for us. The meal was massive and had like 5 courses to it. Fresh seafood and vegetables. I was sitting on a table with two people from Singapore who were lovely. They were from India and live in Singapore but are going back to India to open a charity to help the poor in india. They then said when I get to Singapore they would give me free tickets to the zoo!!

After lunch we arrived at a beach and lookout hill which I climbed to see 360 degree views of Halong Bay:

It was incredible. Then we went to see some caves in a rowing boat:

Afterwords we relaxed on the boat until dinner. Dinner was incredible again. 5 more course of fresh seafood, fresh oysters, lots of vegetables etc. Then we relaxed more on the boat docked in Halong Bay and it turned out one of the Australian ladies was a guide leader in Sydney. What are the chances! So after chatting on deck for a while we then went to bed.

The next day we had breakfast and headed to the most magnificent caves I had ever seen.

It stretched for miles and was millions of years old.

After we had lunch and took part in a cooking class where we made spring rolls. Then made our way back towards land.

We then caught our bus back to the city where I did a little more exploring before my journey to Hong Kong:

Halong Bay was amazing and I definitely recommend you do an overnight sailing tour. The place was lovely and not too hot and quite spectacular floating in amongst the hills. I'm glad I went out of season as apparently it is packed with boats when it's busy but we hardly saw any.

I enjoyed my time in Vietnam, It was very different to the rest of Asia and had a lot of natural beautiful spots although most of them are very touristy now.

Hanoi- home to the weirdest museum!

So Lucy and I almost never made it to Hanoi. After Hoi An it was time to catch our flight with Jetstar Pacific. We arrived at the airport at 7am for the 9am flight only to find out they changed the flight. Every single time we have flown with Jetstar they changed the flight. This time it was due to leave at 8pm! They made loads of excuses about why we were never informed and in the end (after much arguing) gave us a refund. Then came the emergency running round airport looking for a new flight that would take us to Hanoi. We found one and bought our tickets there and then. Something I had never done before. We then had 5 minutes to check in and 15 minutes to get through security but... We made it!

We were picked up by our hotel driver and taken to our hotel. On the way for some reason he stopped to talk to someone on a motorbike and exchange items. We were a bit put out by this and it seemed strange but nothing else eventful happened so we left it.

We arrived at our hotel and were told that our room was occupied and would we accept a double. I mean who gives away a room that is already paid for? As compensation he gave us cheap taxi back to hotel at end of our stay. So we ended up in a double room looking at the lake.

The old town is quite pretty and the lake is lovely:

We walked round the lake and to the temple in the middle of the lake:

There were exercise classes going on round the lake and it was quite busy.

We walked to the opera house and saw a man walk right through the traffic without even looking!

Then we sat in a lovely cafe for a couple of hours looking at the traffic and people watching. We then walked back in the evening round the lake and went to our hotel.

The next day we had a tour of Tam Coc and it was pouring in rain.

We were picked up by our tour guide in a small bus with no seat belts or proper seats and driven out of the city. We were almost at our first destination when we crashed into a lorry! Thankfully no one was hurt and the bus ended up with a big dent in one side. Yes this is how scary driving in vietnam is. The driver was constantly on his mobile phone and not looking where he was going! This is typical behaviour of Vietnamese drivers. But we kept going to our first destination, Hoa Lu the ancient capital of Vietnam:

It was beautiful even though it rained but this added to the mystique.

Then we headed to Tam Coc and had lunch and then Lucy and I went on a bike ride which turned out to be awesome!

The pictures did not do this justice to how greeny yellow everything was and how massive the mountains were.

Then we went on a boat tour along a river in Tam Coc.

The lady pushed the boat with her feet:

The scenery was spectacular:

This was my best day so far and I highly recommend Tam Coc. The rain just added to the atmosphere.

Our last day together and we started of with the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum:

For those that don't know Ho Chi Minh is a pretty big deal in Vietnam. He was a major political leader for the people and everyone loves him. On his death he said he didn't want any fuss or wastefulness of land in vietnam and just wanted a simple burial. So in respecting his wishes they resurrected a massive mausoleum to him where thousands go to worship him every day and they post guards outside that shout at you if you get too close. From 9am to 11am you can go visit his body and spend two hours queuing for the pleasure in hot cramped conditions. We decided not to do this but walked by the place anyway.

We then made our way to the temple of litrature:

Then we had to go learn more about Ho Chi Minh at the Ho Chi Minh  museum:

It was weird and hardly any of it was in English.

This is his brain apparently:

See weird. We left more confused than ever.

We walked through the park seeing a one pillar pagoda along the way:

Lastly we went to visit the tran Quoc pagoda:

Then had dinner which included a coconut drink!

Overall I really liked Hanoi especially Tam Coc. If you have to choose between hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city I would definitely choose Hanoi.