We flew into Hanoi on 6th June. The flight only took an hour and was a nice change from all the long bus trips We got a mini bus into the town centre. When we got off we neoticiated a good price for a room and a man drove us and our bags to his guest house on two mopeds. Airconditioning and TV again! Its cheap in Vietnam.

We explored the city over the next couple of days. It was extremely hectic and there are mopeds everywhere. People sit out on the pavements all day so you have to walk in the road. There were lots of shops and stalls crowding the streets. Our guesthouse was located in welding street.

We visited an island on a lake in the middle of the city. They have a temple there, it was pleasent. Apparently giant turtles live in the lake, although according to my Lonely Planet, one hasn't been seen since 2004. They did have a giant embalmed turtle there in a glass case. It was pretty gross. It was incredibly hot that day and we had ice-cream.

One evening we went to watch the water puppet show which was a strange experience. Lots of strange people/dragons/creatures kept popping out of the water and dancing around to music and vietnamese commentry. Didn't have a clue what was going on. It was quite entertaining though. There was also a traditional music show.

We booked a two day trip to Halong Bay through our hostel, and we left on the 8th quite early on an overcrowded minibus. The journey to Halong Bay took about three hours and when we got there we joined the other tourists milling around by the dock not really knowing where we were supposed to go. The guides didn't have a clue what they were doing our who was on what trip. We waited around for about an hour before we got on a boat and headed out into the bay.

We had a seafood lunch and met another couple from Halifax which was a bit of a coincidence. We had seen them before in other places on our travel but hadn't spoke to them before. We cruised through the bay for a couple of hours chilling on the deck and admiring the awesome scenery. Even though our trip was pretty rubbish and badly organised, the bay itself is lovely and it was a really hot and sunny day. We stopped at some caves which were ok but they were really crowded. It was nice to get out of the sun though. Then we cruised through the floating village, which was pretty cool, before arriving and Catba Island in the early evening. We were given a room on the 6th floor which was fine, it was overlooking the bay and had a nice view. Later on we went to eat with everyone from our boat and were given local food and rice, which was quite good.

We couldn't find our guide to ask him when we had to meet in the morning so we ended up missing breakfast. Then we all got on a boat heading back to the mainland. It took a few hours and we relaxed on the deck in the sun and read. We were a bit disappointed as we didn't get to go swimming or kayaking which was supposed to be included. We got to the mainland and had to wait about an hour for them to sort a minibus to take us to lunch and then home. It was a shame as all the excursions we've been on so far have been excellent but we still had a nice time, met some good people and got to visit Halong Bay.

We stayed in Hanoi for one more night. We ate out at quite a nice restuarent and I had apple crumble for a treat. I thought it was worth mentioning. On the way home we saw a street fight, which is the only violence we have seen in Asia. Reminded me of Halifax town centre on a Friday night.I felt a bit ill in the evening so I stayed in bed watching american sitcoms. The next day we checked out to catch our flight to Bangkok.