Left at 8.30 for Hanoi, and arrived at 12.30pm. We went straight for a walk with everyone past the HoChiMinh mausoleum and a statue of Lenin. We later found out that a Russian diplomatic car that we saw, and official looking visit taking place at the mausoleum was infact a meeting between Russian officials and the Vietnamese president to further trade agreements and defence information. We took lunch in a western style bakery, which was much more expensive than w...

We put some laundry in in the morning before heading back to the highlands Cafe in the old quarter for a club sandwich. The service was a lot slower that day, although something we'd come to expect in asia. We wondered around the old quarter and the pagoda on the lake in the old quarter. We watched the new film Shutter Island before a late dinner at the Little Hanoi, sadly our last meal there!

We slept in before doing odd jobs and then meeting Julie, a Danish girl who had been on the tour but was also staying at the hotel for a few more nights, for lunch, at Joma's.We headed back to book the cooking class for 4pm, and watched a film to pass the time before then. The class was 45 US dollars for 3 hours, an expensive thing to do but well worth it, as it was in a fully kitted out kitchen and well qualified chefs. One took us to the market to buy ingredien...

Woke up at 8am to go to see Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. We thought this was early but the queue was already huge. Security was tight, no cameras, and armed military everywhere, while you walk within 15 feet of a perfectly preserved 120 year dead man! The trip also included a trip around his old house.We then headed to the old quarter for some food to keep us going till lunch, before having a wonder around to kill time until the water puppet show at 2.15. It was an i...

Met Billy in the morning and went to the Hanoi Hilton museum. Where US pilots were imprisoned during the Vietnam war and also used as a prison during French colonial rule. It was a little bit of a let down, as it was made out to be almost a holiday camp for the pilots, and was completely unrepresentative of what it was like during the war.We had lunch at a highlands cafe, a western style coffee chain out there which serve food, this particular one was in what was...