Arrived at our Hanoi hotel about midnight and crashed to get as much sleep as possible knowing the family had arrived ahead of us. Fortunately we'd managed to get some shut-eye on the plane, so were able to be up in reasonable shape to join them for breakfast.

Enjoyable couple of days in Hanoi visiting peaceful Hoan Kiem Lake, tourist ride in an electric cart, doing a bit of shopping. A visit to the Temple of Literature - Vietnam's first university established in 1076 - where students until recently could go and rub the heads of tortoise statues for good luck before exams. A practice now prohibited in an effort to preserve them. Followed this with lunch at the famous KOTO restaurant. Not enough time to do Hanoi justice.

Magnificent overnight cruise in Halong Bay - and we ended up upgrading to a bigger boat to better accommodate our largish group. Luxury. Not quite the atmosphere of the cramped junk of our first trip years ago. Appreciated the stunning scenery, beautiful expanses of water, interesting features of the Bay. The kids enjoyed the kayaking and swimming, squid fishing off the side of the boat in the dark. The floating fishing village we visited looked idyllic but I think moves are afoot to move such places onto the shore for environmental and other reasons. We enjoyed the food and cooking demo and peacefulness of the area. I hope they manage toprotect it from the tourist onslaught longer term.

Then a too short three days in Quang Ngai to check out our "home town" and meet a few of the locals. Followed this with several days in Hoi An. I love the old town with its little streets and alleys and old buildings, it has a nice feel. Took a very hot half day trip to the My Son Champa ruins. There are extensive ruins, a long way from anywhere, some destroyed in the war, but fascinating to behold. I love that sort of thing, should have been an archaeologist. There are major attempts being made at conservation and a few unfortunate early attempts have been made at repair, I think discontinued now.

Lastly overnight in Danang and managed a quick trip to "China Beach" and the impressive Champa museum.

It was wonderful to see the family and hard to see them go. We're looking forward to another visit next year. Also visits from friends coming up - so watch this space!