Day 25. Flight home. So to continue and finalise our last day on board our ship, The Victory Star, we wake up early (or rather I wake up and wake Julie up, in time for sunrise, and we watch the red sun rise over the horizon of the Gulf of Tonkin, in our jim-jams. (It may only be 5.40am but there is plenty of time to sleep on the flight back home tonight - yeah right!!). Next up is Tai Chi on the top deck, at 6.30am. Julie participates with 5 other ladies (and...

Amazingly found an internet hotspot in the middle of nowhere so an update...our last day, although I have plenty to tell you from yesterday as my post was so early. We were picked up on schedule at 8 am for our drive to Halong Bay. Our guide notes provided by our travel agent describe our 4 hour drive through the gentle villages of North Vietnam. The reality is a drive of that length, through sprawling city outskirts, on a 4 lane motorway, when the road is onl...

Day 24 Halong Bay. This will really be a short post today as we are travelling to Ha Long Bay for an overnighter on a traditional junk (hopefully it doesn't live up to its name). The area we are sailing around is famous for its 'Karst' rock formations - large limestone formations that rise up vertically from the sea in fabulous shapes and sizes. They are well worth a look on the old tinternet. Last nights meal at Le Tonkin was good, if not memorable. It was i...

Day 23 Hanoi. So we eventually arrived safely in Hanoi, although it is 17 degrees and pouring with rain as the northern monsoon shows its hand a month early! It feels like the pilot took a wrong turn and we are back in good old blighty and not Hanoi. Our business class taster flight was an enjoyable experience, albeit too short (I should have insisted on an upgrade to our flight home!). As would be expected there was oodles of legroom, elbow room and even 'bu...

Day 22 Hanoi. Today is another transfer day, our last internal flight north from Hue International airport to Hanoi. Now Hue international airport is unique in that it does not have any international flights only internal flights. Our guide tels us that the name justifies charging higher parking charges, which were raised when they added the 'international' bit to the name, without adding any international flights. There will be a shock to our systems when we...