The last week has been a blur. We left you in Cat Ba Island, after an epic trip on the local transport - and I write to you in the midst of one. I'm currently on a bus going from Nanning to Yangshou which is advertised at 6 hours. This is after a train journey of around 13 hours with two immigration/customs stops when we crossed the Chinese border at around 3am. Trips like these are becoming second nature - but this one has been especially nice as we are sharing the journey with Guy and George.

Guy is Australian and teaches English here - he brings the very useful ability of speaking Mandarin which we have found to already be very very handy. George is a traveller like us and managed to just sell the bike he bought in Saigon (and then rode to Hanoi over the course of 6 weeks) for $150 more than what he got it for! Beers are on him tonight.

George has taught me how to play Chinese Chess - a spectacle in the Bus Depot that actually caused the security to move us all on as the crowd were blocking the stairs and entrances. Quite alot of pressure for my first game! In Chinese Chess there's terrain, cannons, elephants, palaces....it's really quite new and fun. I'm going to pick up my own set as soon as I can.

But back to Cat Ba. Our main event there was an excursion into Lan Ha Bay which contain a great amount of the famous Karst peaks sticking out from the water. We had a really amazing time - and it felt like a very personal trip as at one point we had the whole boat to ourselves (the rest of the group had opted to do Rock Climbing). We cruised around, swimming when we fancied it, dropping in on fish farms and playing cards with 'Luc' the 10-yr-old cabin boy. It was peaceful, beautiful and exactly how I wanted to see them.

From the morning of that trip for around 72 hours, I had either food poisioning or a virus but I was very, very ill. I couldn't eat or drink as nothing would stay in and even the smell of food made me nauseous. I was weak as a puppy and struggled in the heat to do much of anything. And obviously I couldn't really rely on any of the home comforts I would use to get me over it (mased potatoes, re-runs of blackadder) which it made it all the worse. It was miserable. But hey, I'm all better now! I'm eating well, drinking and regained my strength by sleeping for ages in our wonderful hotel in Hanoi.

Fiona and I are very sad to leave Vietnam, we had such an amazing time. It's going to be quite different when we eventually come back here as money is being pumped in - before long there'll be a starbucks on every corner. This will of course bring improvements in standards and level of living but I hope this doesn't diminish the amazing friendly spirit of the Vietnamese. They are just superb people and deserve all the luck in the world.

Will blog from China when we get settled for a while :)

Stu