First couple of days

What a couple of days! It's been amazing.
Firstly i've got to appologise for the spelling in this post, the keyboard i'm using doesn't have a h,y or u key so i'm having to copy and paste them in. Secondl for the lack of photos, i've got some and will upload wen i have more time.

Day 1 (friday)

Flight was fine, didn't get muc sleep but arrived in Hanoi at 9 after a brief stop in Hong Kong. Was out of the airport and roaming te city at 10:30. Now to find the hotel, unfortunately no one had heard of the cit gate hotel and te taxi dropped us off in the centre instead. After going to the tourist information centre we got an address and got another taxi to go find it. He dropped us off at te address but there was no hotel to be seen. After wandering aimlessl around for about an hour we finall found it, tucked away down a small alley. We went in but te hotel didn't have a booking for us. After arguing that we had already paid online matt was forced to use a computer to show her the conformation email. Turns out we hadn't booked the city gate hotel, we had booked a different hotel. Noting down the address we headed back out with our tails between our legs.
Hot, frustrated, thirsty and without sleep matt decided to buy a bottle of water, he went to the nearest shop and asked how much a bottle was, the man signaled 5. Unfamiliar with Vietnamese money Matt handed the man 500,00 dong and walked away, 5 minutes later he realised the man meant 5,000 dong and he had just paid almost 20pounds for a small bottle of water...
After another 2 taxi's unable to find the new hotel we finally found it, walked in, desperate for a room we tried to check in. Apparently they didn't have a booking for us either...
After lots of arguing and phone calls to people who could speak english we were again forced to prove to them we had booked using the email, turns out it was for the hotel next door.
Having finally found the correct hotel we went up and showered and decided what to do next. Not wanting to ruin our body clocks i suggested we power through until the night to sleep. After returning from the room i realised i couldn't find my passport. i emptied my bag but to no avail. During all the picking up and putting down of bags, taxi rides and wrong hotels i must have left it somewhere. Disaster! Still without sleep i explained my situation to the hotel reception who were great. They told me everything i needed to do and phoned the embassy. Apparently i needed to go to the police station and file a report to say i'd lost it before the embassy would do anything. I headed off to the police station to file the report but no one spoke english. After a difficult game of pictionary trying to explain that i'd lost my passport (including pictures of countries and aeroplanes) they gave up trying to guess and wrote a note for me to take back to the hotel. Once again they were great and explain the situation to the police and told me what i needed to do. Write a report of the event in english and Vietnamese! After the formalities of starting the letter with something along the of "Great nation of vietnam, comunist, free, happy" I tried my best to pad out "i lost my passport, i don't know where" into a full paragraph and luckily one of the hotel staff agreed to translate it into Vietnamese for me.
They told me it would be ready on monday at 5pm so i decided to go and book our trip to ha long bay.
Following my ex boss' advice i went into hanoi backpackers hostel and booked a three day tour for 80 pounds including accomdation, travel and food. Totally exhausted from the day we decided to eat in our hotel restaurant and went to bed at 7.

Day 2
We had to be ready for our trip to Ha Long bay at 8 so we got up at 7, rushed a quick breakfastat the hotel and got ourselves to hanoi backpackers. Here we got the bus for 4 hours up to halong city. We all shuffled around and i got to talk to some really interesting people and the time flew by. Once in the city we took a small boat out to the bigger boat we would be staying on that night. Once there it was announced the bar was open so the 40 or so people on the tour all rushed to get the beers in, it was 1 o'clock. Sitting on the top deck of the boat soaking up the sun with a beer in hand was perfect. Next it was lunch which was an awesome collection of various fish they had caught that day, fresh fruit and lots and lots of rice. The drinking continued and by 5 o'clock a significant proportion of the boat was smashed. Sun bathing on top of a boat, with beautiful scenery, chatting to loads of new people was great. At around 3 the boat stopped and we all got to jump of the boat and swim around. Drunk people and jumping off boats didn't really mix and there were a significant number of belly flops. Next we all got to have a paddle around in some kayaks and visit some caves. Just before dinner the rooms were dished out and as luck would have it me and matt got the one with the un-closable door. Dinner was much the same as lunch and still delicious. At around 8 happy hour started with 2-4-1 drinks and the drinking games began. The tour guides organised some great games and everyone was having a good time. The evening was filled with crazy stuff such as the tour guides all doing a naked conga through the boat, a banning of wearing shorts and saying the word "drink" or any variation of it was punishable by 10 press ups. Beverages were continued to be consumed and the eating area was transformed into a dance floor. It was a great night but everyone went to bed at around 5 and breakfast was at 7..

Day 3
For the second day of the tour we would be staying on a place called castaway island, a beach in the middle of halong bay with some huts on it. We were the only ones on it and it was beautiful. During the day we could go rock climbing or kayaking, play volley ball and relax. The climbing was amazing, really difficult and it got so many cuts but the views were worth it. In the evening the drinking continued with many more games and everyone was joining in. At 2 in the morning we went for a night swim which was incredible because the water was full of a touch sensitive photo-algae, which basically means the sea lit up as you swam. Again the festivities ended around 5-6 with breakfast at 7 the next day... Sleeping  on the beach sounded like a great idea at the time but the tide came in lighting fast which meant none of us really got any sleep.

Day 4
After a breakfast of just bread we got back on the boat to head home. Everyone feeling the effects of 2 days of non-stop drinking and no sleep i thought the trip home would be pretty quiet. I was wrong. A group of boys started drinking vodka red bulls with breakfast and were absolutely smashed (or maybe they never sober up) by 9. The boat was transformed into a karaoke boat with the most appalling renditions of various classics. When we returned we booked into another hotel on the recomendations of some of the guys we were with which was really nice but unfortunately the bathroom wall were made of glass and right next to the beds so showering was a tad awkward.
That night we went out with the guys that recommended the hotel (a pilot and a DJ) and had a really nice meal before moving on to "the bucket bar". It had 2-4-1 cocktails, a pool table, a table football and we met some girls from sweeden who shamefully beat us twice at table football.
Suddenly a gong was sound to anounce 2-4-1 on buckets had started. I got a vodka red bull one (or two as one was free) which consisted of a half pint of vodka topped up with red bull. The night gets a little hazy from then on but i've got some great stories.

Will probally edit this in a couple of days as i'm really hot and hungover at the moment.
Vietnam is the best place on earth!