A cheery wake up call from the conductor at 05:00! These early morning wake-ups are just getting too much! Taxi across town to the hotel where, quite unreasonably we thought, our room was not yet ready. We were permitted the use of the spa room to shower but it was a little too early in the day for a massage. We have pretty much done and seen everything we want to in Hanoi so we mooched around up and down the, by now familiar, streets. Even after a few days out o...

Today was just as foggy as yesterday at Sapa and we were not sorry to leave and get down below the cloud. Today we headed to Bac Ha, about a two hour drive away, to see the Sunday market to which all the "Flower Hmong" hill tribe people come on a Sunday. It was very colourful and the people could not have been more different from yesterday - they were in town to do their Sunday shopping and they couldn't give a damn about tourists. If you stood in the way taking ...

Not to spoil our run of pre-dawn arisals the conductor gave us a cheery good morning knock at 05:30 half an hour before arriving at Lao Cai which is the stop just 3 km before the Chinese border. We definitely would not have wanted to sleep in this morning and end up in China. We had just enough time for a coffee and croissant before the train pulled in and we were met by our guide for the two days and driven up the mountain to Sapa. Sapa is in the next valley ove...

We had decided to purchase the lacquer painting which we had seen the other day so made our way to the gallery. Being the first customers of the day the owner was disposed to give us a very good discount so we decided to buy. The rest of the day was spent just experiencing the buzz of Hanoi. Had coffee at a place on the roundabout at the NW corner of Hoan Kiem lake and marvelled at the huge number of vehicles making it through the intersection without lights, pol...

We travelled by car today to Tam Coc (Halong Bay on land). It was about a two hour drive across the Red River plains in drab grey winter weather so not very interesting. We had a good guide and driver though. Passing Ninh Binh city we first stopped at a temple complex which had been built in the16th century to mark the site of Vietnam Nam's first capital 1,000 years ago when they first obtained independence from the Chinese. On to lunch where the highlight of the...