Xin Chao family and friends! Darren and Kerry writing to you on our last day in Vietnam! The last couple of days have been a mixture of surreal sights and some long journeys.

Since last updating you we left Hoi An by bus and made the four hour journey to Hue' where once again the heavens opened with rain upon our arrival! We checked into our hotel and went to grab a curry for dinner as there was an Indian restaurant right next door the hotel, while we went through some information on what we wanted to do in Hue'. We decided that the following day we would take a look at the old Citadel, site of the old Imperial city begun by Emporer Gia Long.

The following morning we woke to more heavy rain so we rather reluctantly donned our ponhos and trudged off to the Citadel of Hue'. Historically Hue' has been an important political city for Vietnam and for a long period served as the capital for the country. During the Vietnam war it was the site of the bloodiest battles of the 1968 Tet Offensive. The Citadel is a huge area enclosed by a high 10km perimeter wall that contains within it the old Imperial Enclosure of the Emporer, technically a citadel-within-a-citadel. Large sections of the main citadel are now used for agriculture and lots of shops and streets.

We took a wander around the Imperial Enclosure, which contained some fairly architectally striking buildings including an ornate palace and also the Forbidden Purple City which was a place reserved soley for the personal use of the emporer. Afterwards we walked right across to the other side of the citadel to see the two small lakes contained within it that featured little islands in the middle of them connected by bridges that would be used for the recreational pleasure of the emporer.

Once we had finished getting wet wandering around the citadel we made our way back to the hotel and booked our bus for the following day to Hanoi. We then went to grab some dinner at a local restaurant and while we were there the rain poured down even heavier causing the street outside to flood up to the doorway within 15 minutes!! Deciding not to wade back through the flooded streets, we chilled out in the restaurant for the rest of the night talking to two girls there and the owner even payed for a beer for us all! Finally the deluge subsided and we could make our way back to the hotel.

The following morning we woke up to discover that the night's consistant rainfall had caused all the surrounding streets to become flooded in knee-high water meaning there wasn't a great deal we could do other than to roll our shorts up and wade out into the newly created river system. We were then confronted with the most surreal sights of people in boats ferrying people up and down the street! Crazy motorbike drivers were still trying to ride their bikes through the water and a number of them flooded the engine and had to get off and push their machines through the water. Every time a large vehicle came through the water it would create a wave that would lap against the shops lining the street! We took some great pictures and managed to make our way to a part of the city that wasn't flooded. We wandered around for a while and then made our way back to the hotel for our long journey through the night by bus to Hanoi.

The bus arrived and it couldn't even get down the street to collect us so we found ourselves wading all the way up the street with our heavy backpacks and luggage to get to it. We then had the longest journey to Hanoi, which ended up taking 16 hours due to a tyre bursting on the bus right on the outskirts of Hanoi. Finally the following morning we made it and checked into to a hotel in the Old Quarter section of the city and having a rest before taking a look around some of the city, and at last the sun was shining for us!

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and many of it's buildings reflect a French colonial style to them. The streets of the Old Quarter are named according to the products that are sold down it, for example shoe street, leather street etc. We took a walk around the beautiful setting of Hoan Kiem Lake, whose name translates as the Lake of the Restored Sword after a story telling of a magical sword being grabbed from the Emperor Ly Thai To by a huge tortoise in the lake. Remarkably the lake does contain a huge species of tortoise, although no-one is quite sure how they have survived in such an urban setting. We took a walk around a temple that is situated on the lake connected by a bridge but there wasn't really much there other than a few trinket selling shops. That evening we booked a tour for the following day with our hotel to go on an overnight boat cruise to Halong Bay.

The following morning we were up early and on the minibus to Halong Bay, a four hour journey away from Hanoi. Halong Bay is undoubtedly the natural wonder of Vietnam featuring over 3000 jagged islands rising out of the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. It has been granted World Heritage Site status and it is easy to see why. With the sun shining brightly we boarded the big wooden boat that would be home for the next two days and made friends with a lovely Australian couple called Lianne and Anthony, who would be immegrating to England in two weeks time!

We set sail after some lunch on the boat and it wasn't long before we could see the huge karsts rising out of the water. It was an incredible sight and our first stop off was at a cave system located on one of the islands. With all the wooden ships of the other tours moored up it looked like a scene out of Pirates Of The Carribbean! The first cave system we saw was incredible with huge chambers lit up with lots of different coloured lights giving the place an incredibly etherial feel. Once we'd had a good look around we were back on the boat for some more cruising around the islands. At the end of the day we stopped at a floating fishing village where we hired kayaks but as we were late getting there we ended up kayaking around a few of the islands practically in the dark!! In the evening we anchored up with all the other boats near one of the islands and had a few drinks with Lianne and Anthony before hitting the hay for the night.

In the morning Kerry woke up early to watch the sun rise and I woke up a little later to the sound of people diving off the top of the boat into the water. We then travelled over to another floating fishing village and boarded a smaller boat which took us through a cave in the side of one of the islands to the inside of a crater formation, which looked incredible but proved hard to adequately photograph from inside. We also went to a second crater before heading back to the bigger boat and then cruising back to Halong Bay to catch the minibus back to Hanoi. We spent our last night in Vietnam soaking up the atmosphere of the night market in the Old Quarter and having some dinner in a restuarant overlooking the busy streets. Hanoi's name translates as City of the Soaring Dragon and there is no doubt that this is one dragon that is continuously on the move!

This morning we will be making our way to the airport to fly back to the crazy city of Bangkok, where we will probably spend the night before heading on to Chiang Mai in the north. Two weeks left on our travels and we have to cram as much as we can in!! Take care and speak to you all soon!

Tam Biet!