Don't Get Attached to the Local Food

This is Puppydog and she followed me for around 10miles through the villages surrounding Sapa. Stray dogs are pretty common in Vietnam but most of them pretend to look like they belong somewhere. Puppydog didn't seem to belong anywhere. 

Dog meat is really popular in Vietnam, normally eaten at the end of the month to bring good luck and fortune. Being a vegetarian myself for moral and ethical reasons, you'd maybe think I'd see all animals the same in that respect but truthfully, I found this much more difficult to come to terms with. She took a particular shining to me, maybe she could sense the crazy-animal-lady in me. She didn't look at me nor did I pet her but she kept very close and often brushed up against my leg if a larger dog was close-by. Then she watched as we drove away and it took every ounce of strength in me to not smuggle her wee skinny body away. 

Descending Dragon Bay- Halong Bay

I'm looking through my photos and I can't actually believe I've just been in Halong Bay, woooft! The trip wooshed by, beautiful friends made along the way. I went with a junk-boat cruise called Halong Dragon Cruise for a 2night/3day trip. After a hot and humid day kayaking and squid fishing, we drank the hours away on the deck in the floating city of boats.
 A struggle getting up for breakfast the next morning and then across to Monkey Island to see the monkeys and get our tan on. We made our way to Cat Ba island, the largest of the islands in Halong Bay, and cycled the 5km through the limestone mountains to our bungalow for the night which was in-credible! All the wildlife. David Attenborough eat your heart out. It was a pretty remote village and I wish we'd been able to stay longer. I mean b-jeezus look at those photos.
I'm off to the north-west next to a place called Sapa.
Lazing about Hanoi waiting for the lightening storms to end there. Crossing so many things of dat list!