The Pillars of the Earth

A little update from two very exhausted travellers.  It's been a crazy past week where we've been on the move pretty much all the time.  And of course, have seen and done some incredible things.  I'll let this little selection of the photos do most of the talking.

The amazing Hoi An - probably my favourite place in Vietnam.  Little streets full of these old yellow buildings that have been kept pretty much as they have always been.

Women work on the rice fields outside Hoi An.  A very common (and slightly cliche) scene reproduced all around the countryside.

A beach near Hoi An.  Crystal clear warm water - and all to ourselves.

We've tried to catch a few sunsets around the place, but there usually isn't one.  For once, we got this one in Hoi An.

We've covered a lot of ground in the past week, sometimes only spending an afternoon in a place before getting on the bus again.  This was an afternoon stopover in Hue.  We rented bikes and cycled around - looks romantic, but the sweat pouring off us was anything but.

An amazing climb up a limestone formation in Ninh Binh, passing by a series of pagodas all the way up.  See above about sweat.

The view from the top.

Another limestone formation we thought would be fun to climb in the midday heat.  500 steps later, it was all worth it.

Photos don't do this place justice.  It's Lan Ha bay off Cat Ba island where we've spent the past couple of days.  David managed to convince me to skip Halong Bay and go to the nearby Cat Ba island instead.  Best decision ever.

We spent a day kayaking around the massive limestone formations.  Hard to capture the magic of the day in photos.  I think David's smile says it all.

The most magical moment we had on the kayaks.  We passed under a small archway which then opened up to a calm, aqua blue water lagoon (again, very hard to capture the moment in photos).
That night we slept on a boat in the bay.  We were imagining sleeping under the stars, but a huge electrical storm put an end to that.  Initial disappointment quickly turned to joy as we stood on the top deck and watched lightening bolts dash over the entire sky.

 And now we're in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, before flying out to London tomorrow morning.  It's a very mixed bag of emotions.  Our South East Asia trip has been incredible, and we're now planning our next one, with hopefully more time.  Bring it on.

- Hana