Day 2 Arrive in Haoi. Arrived safely at Ba Noi airport (Hanoi) and after a long queue for our 'visa on arrival' we were soon out of the airport and picked up by our guide, Long (that's his name).

We soon had our experience of Vietnam traffic as a car slammed into the back of us after about 5 minutes in the car! Thankfully no one was hurt.

We arrived at our overnight stay about 9.30 (check out Moon Garden homestay, Ky Son village) and we were welcomed with a cup of green tea. Feeling quite glad we booked a rest over before flying to Laos on Sunday. However we forgot to mention 'restover' to our hosts, as we were propelled into a list of prearranged activities!

A walk around the village (it is very rural),  had a cooking demo on how to make spring rolls and the Vietnamese equivalent of dalmides, which we then made ourselves and were cooked for our lunch, had a hand massage each, then embarked on a bike ride through the rice fields to a 17th century pagoda.

We have just showers using a traditional hobo shower (hot scented oil which you ladle over yourself from a wooden pail whilst seated on a wooden stool. Then we will be dressing up in traditional Vietnamese costume (supplied, picture to follow) to attend a Buddhist prayer blessing before having dinner. I think that's it for the day (I hope so!).

I'm glad it was a quiet day.

Love Andy & Julie xxx

PS a footnote (if you excuse the pun), that wasn't all for the day! At our dinner table they brought out two wooden pails of warm water plus herbs to soak our feet in!