We woke up early our second day in Hue to take a tour of the DMZ and the Vinh Moc tunnels, and then got dropped off on the way back at Dong Ha hoping to catch a bus to Vinh. The tunnels were really fascinating, but most of the tour sucked. While the bus was equipped with air-conditioning, as they had promised, they refused to turn it on. Hot and sweaty women covered in inches of dust and aching from too many hours sitting on the drop seats!! We learned an aw...

We were back in Hanoi for one more night and then it was time to get somewhere warmer. We hopped on the Reunification Express and headed down to Hoi An over night. We were prepping for some intense shopping. Even the men that we had met said that they couldn't restrain themselves there. It's the prime spot for having clothing tailor-made. They're known specifically for silk, but many people also ordered suits, cords, fleeces, even woolen winter coats. We...

We went back to Hanoi for one night after Halong Bay and then went on our next three day trip to the Northern edge of the country. We took an overnight train to up Sapa, on the Chinese border. This time there were only five of us on the trek- the two of us, an Aussie couple, whom we really enjoyed, and a woman from Amsterdam. It was freezing up there! If you had blindfolded us we would have been sure that we were back in Canada. The first day was too f...

We had been in Hanoi for three days when we decided it was time to take our first little trip away from the northern capital. We booked a three-day trip to Halong Bay to sail around the bay and check out the scenery. It was very beautiful, but cold and foggy the whole time. There were 14 people in total on our trip. A lot of them were snotty French and German travellers who couldn't be bothered to give us the time of day, but we did spend time with a lovely ...

We finally arrived in Hanoi on the 23rd and were pleasantly surprised by the charming landscape on the drive into the city- rice paddies and water buffalo everywhere. We spent a few days wandering around the old quarter. It was charming, dusty, dirty, noisy and very crowded. By the third day, Cheryl had grown a horn and learned to honk in several languages. Crossing the street was best done with closed eyes and a lot of faith. You just have to trust a p...