Discovered that the shower gel had leaked all over Dan's rucksack - which we had shared for the weekend. Everything smelt of 'sea fresh'and was gooey! Including our Lonely Planet Vietnam book - good job we're leaving soon - we chucked it. Coffee at City View cafe which is 5th floor and has views all over the city just as the name suggests. Wandered around, bought some Converse boots for a bargain price - Dan excelled once again with his bartering skills...

Breakfast was at the same place we'd eaten twice yesterday. This time the French were utterly disgusted. Laurent kicked off and walked out then came back and had words with our guide. I found out later that he had told him (in his broken english and harsh tone) that he thought the trip was s***, the food was s*** and the guide was s***. Bear in mind he was speaking to the guide... How typically French! We then spent the rest of the morning sailing back throu...

Felt a bit dodgy this morning. The Israeli guys were rude to us at breakfast, they are like old men!! (But only in their 20s) They taught us backgammon last night which was cool but they would have been quite happy playing it all night and not talking to anyone. They said we were all partying until late and they didn'ty get any sleep... ooops... After breakfast we checked into a hotel and had half an hour before getting on to a minibus (us and the french and...

Got on the bus for Halong Bay at 8am. Could have sworn that the woman sat next to Dan was Joni Mitchell..... Minibus for 3 1/2 hours which meant that Dan could hardly walk by the end of the journey! We had lunch then got on a boat to sail into Halong Bay, which is about 160km from Hanoi, on the east coast. Ha Long literally means descending dragon(s) and according to local myth, the story goes as follows: 'Long ago when their forefathers were fighti...

We set out for the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex, which comprises Ho Chi Minh's tomb, house and a museum. We got lost once then bought two packs of batteries for the camera. Neither would even turn the camera on! Batteries in this country are RUBBISH, we must have gone through 4 or 5 packs a week!! Finally found decent ones and went into the museum. What a contrast to Saigon! This was one of the best museums I have ever been to. We had a guide, who we suspec...