Just a very brief update tonight from Vietnam as it’s late and we’re off to the Vietnam bear rescue centre at 6am tomorrow.

This morning we had to go back to where we left our big bags yesterday to dump what we didn’t need during the day. It rained all day so unfortunately I don’t have any photos from the trek on my phone but will be posting the link to the trek diary on the Animals Asia website once it’s published and a link to the photo gallery.  The scenery was stunning again and made rather mysterious looking by the mist rising from the forest.

We only trekked until lunch time today and then continued by bus to Hanoi where we arrived just before 6pm.  We had dinner in the old town and then some of us went on to “beer corner” where we had the cheapest beer in the world – about 12p for a pint. Here are David, Georgie, Suzie, Tiara, Zoe and Kay enjoying theirs

Just a brief update from Vietnam.

We had a great day today.  Paths were rather treacherous again due to the rain the previous night, but it was drier, so more humid as well. We passed a few picturesque villages again and had lunch in a private home.  As the rain had made the path up to tonight’s home stay too difficult to negotiate for the scooters carrying our overnight gear we had to repack our bags and take anything we need tonight and tomorrow morning in our rucksacks.  Our accommodation is not too far from a waterfall with a lagoon,  perfect for a bath. Some of us made the most of this and washed our hair and clothes in the lovely clean water – obviously with Lush soap so not polluting the river. We’re sitting here now enjoying our last night in a home stay with beers, gin and rum waiting for our dinner.

Above is a picture of the first members of our group venturing into the river and below are Roger and Jay van Bear with their rum. They are great company 🙂

We’ve survived day 2 of the trek. A harder day today with 2 river crossings and rather slippery paths due to the rain the previous night. It did cool it down a bit so we were quite grateful really – even for the rain during the day.

We passed a few small villages and mostly trekked through lush green forests. Suzie and Sandra were adopted by a little girl who I think was quite fascinated by their blond hair.

More tomorrow – no time to write any more