So, I was EXTREME to the max sad about having to leave london, mainly because the thought of an entire FOUR MONTHS away from home seemed like so much effort and I really couldn't be bothered about it after the intensity of brazil. But, I soldiered on to the airport, said a hearty good riddance to Paget, walked through security, looked at the departure board and found that next to the flight to Honk Kong was a flashing red warning informing me that my flight was now closing. So I dropped the coins that I was holding dramatically to the floor and started sprinting down the fucking longest corridor on the planet before being picked up by one of those airport taxi things that old people and the disabled use, and the nice lady walkie-talked to her colleagues to tell them to keep the departure gate open for me. I made it onto my flight, the last person on, very red-faced and sweaty, and found that instead of the empty row of four I had been promised, I was to be accompanied by a half naked fat chinese man. He bloody wouldn't stop staring at me for SO long so I did that thing where I squint my eyes and frown, and I looked at him and mouthed 'whatt??' before looking away and shaking my head. He was wearing really short shorts and socks and kept pulling up his shorts to a genuinely socially unacceptable level to scratch at his thighs, and when the flight got going he proceeded to lie across 3 seats with his legs open and touch me with his feet. YUCK.

good selection of films though - watched Frost/Nixon and The Reader.

Nothing happened in Hong Kong, got my transfer flight to Hanoi, arrived 6pm and had to wait an entire TWO AND A HALF hours in the airport for Tom and Shapiro who'd got a flight from Singapore. It doesn't sound like a long time, but the Vietnamese are very chatty inquisitive people, and I was approached by numerous people, largely taxi drivers but also some randomers
wondering where I was from, why I was alone, do I have a husband, why don't I have a husband, why am I so beautiful but cannot find a husband, do I want a taxi to the hotel to wait for my friends there instead of here, have I tried dog meat etc etc. Then the boys showed up, we got to our lovely hotel, and went out for our first street food meal of chicken noodle soup before heading to bed.