Glad for a sleep-in before breakfast and our final few hours in Hanoi . We had just enough time to wander back to the lake area savouring all the sights, sounds and scents of the old quarter enroute. On every venture out you notice different things amongst the maze of streets and the narrowest of alleyways. Mesmerised by the men making rice noodles and wonton wrappers or pork buns; the barbers; women carving pineapples, peeling water chestnuts, drying herbs as w...

Our guide, Hoa, and driver picked us up from the hotel at 8.30am for our private day tour of the city. So glad for choice based on the the heat, humidity and crowds of people as another public holiday to commemorate Vietnam Reunification. We headed though the old quarter and French Quarter, past Lenin's statue (hope to visit again later) to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Due to the public holiday it was actually closed which didn't deter the throngs of people coming ...

A comfortable nights sleep in our cabin on 1st deck ( tastefully furnished with timber panelling and marble bathroom in an oriental flavour) and pleasantly surprised to wake to blue skies! After a cuppa and pastry Tai Chi instruction began on the upper deck at 7am! Quite a unique experience! By 7.45am we were being transferred by tender to Titop Island. We were allocated less than an hour but enough time to hike up the 400 odd stone steps to the top to witness am...

Awake early - struggling a tad with my head cold - but excited for our big day ahead. Reshuffled our packing so we could leave our suitcases at the hotel and just take our carry-on for our overnight adventure to Halong Bay. Buffet brekkie in the hotel then our driver arrived promptly at 8am for our 3.5 hour drive to Halong Bay. Was certainly an interesting drive - on our own in an air conditioned vehicle .....again with a driver who didn't speak English! Frustr...

Well, after all the planning and preparation we're finally off! Adam dropped us to the airport around 5.30am for our 7.55 am departure so plenty of time - that was all needed - to enable claiming my tax on the new iPad purchase and checking out the duty free. It's many years since I've flown Singapore Airlines and we weren't disappointed. The low numbers on board together with the impeccable service, meals and movies meant for an enjoyable 7hours and 40 minutes. ...