Hanoi

is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. We arrive wondering what we have in store! Horns beeping every two seconds and the roads filled with motorcycles and after such an amazing few days in the calm and serene Halong Bay, Hanoi is a far cry from all that! Once again Jade has made the deal of the century and her haggling skills are just second to none.

What was a 15dollar room was now a 10dollar room! Our bags are emptied and so are our bellies believe it or not… we head out into the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. We walk from our Hotel which is in the old district tucked in amongst the many idyllic alleyways situated next to the Cathedral south west of the lake. Now at the night market we sit at a vendor located right in the middle of a busy junction to have a coffee, the cheapest we have found yet in Hanoi. Compared to everywhere else we have been in Vietnam, Hanoi seems to have an inflated price range and not negotiable either!

We buy some dvd's and of course some delicious treats. There are so many vendors selling all kinds of nick knacks, mostly iPhone covers. We cannot believe how big the night market is; The atmosphere is electric, even despite the cold weather! We spend the rest of the evening pottering around looking at what is on offer.

A well-deserved lie in and we are off to see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum just a 15min walk from the old town, Jade is becoming the navigating master, as I seem to always be losing my bearings and not to mention my marbles! We arrive at the mausoleum and it's closed! It is a large memorial in Hanoi, Vietnam and is located in the centre of Ba Dinh Square, which is the place where Vietminh leader Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh is preserved in the cooled, central hall of the mausoleum, which is protected by a military honour guard. The body lies in a glass case with dim lights. He is even sent to Russia for three months to have work done on him to keep him looking fresh, Jade and I are a little bit sceptical about this and reckon they send him to madam tusaurds! But we cannot comment as we couldn't go inside.

So we continue to circumnavigate the city, The parks and piazza in this area are so well kept, there are so many people taking care of the trees and there are street cleaners everywhere.

This walking malarkey is killing our feet! We worked it out on Google maps that we had walked 10km of the city in 3 hrs. What an amazing feat!

Our evening consisted of eating (Pho) noodle soup but with a twist, not the regular beef, I went for ox heart which was truly scrumptious. Jade had a dish called Bun Rieu which was fantastic, noodles that were almost like pasta heaped with 3-4 different meats, Tofu and some strange herbs to add into the soup. What a mixture of flavours! Jade was particular happy as the dish didn't contain her asian arch enemy...coriander!

Our last Day was spent with a walk around the Hồ Hoàn Kiếm lake, meaning "Lake of the Returned Sword". According to the legend, emperor Lê Lợi handed a magic sword, called Heaven's Will which brought him victory in his revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty, back to the Golden Turtle God in the lake and hence gave it its present name. We also enjoy an ice cream shop located on the promenade of the lake, what a treat!

We are both looking forward to Singapore and especially the heat , Hanoi for us has not been one of favourites especially compared to the structured Saigon in the south. It was all a little bit overpriced, same kind of shock value from English south west prices to London prices, well here's me moaning about prices and we are off to one of the world's richest countries. Look out Singapore he we come.