29/10/12 set off for Vietnam by bus, actually luxury coach with 6 passengers, 3 crew, movies, breakfast and dinner - All for £14. Arrived in Hanoi feeling fresh and went out to explore - What a crazy city, traffic intense and no stopping …cars, motor bikes, bicycles, cyclos, tuk-tuks and pedestrians all interweaving and somehow not colliding. It takes a while to realise that no-one will stop - the technique is to just walk across the road and trust that the traffic will drive around you; somehow it works.

People are sitting on plastic "kiddie chairs" with little plastic tables, all along the sidewalk and are eating or playing cards and dominoes seemingly all day long. Food is very good and available everywhere at very low cost, though you may be crouched on a kiddie chair to eat it. People are very friendly, although they are always trying to sell but stay friendly even when you refuse. Heather decided to have her hair cut by a random barber on the street (I think he was repairing a car at the time but he had a scissors and a chair) a bargain at £1.50 (Check out the photos).

Ho Chi Min is evident ever where, statues, pictures, posters and general memorabilia he is still held in very high regard by the Vietnamese people - We went to visit his mausoleum but it was closed (Lenin's in Moscow and Mao's in Beijing were also closed when we were there) Must be a message -"We cannot see dead people". We took a Cyclo to the HCM museum - a Cyclo is basically a bike with a low wide pram mounted on the front and you sit in the pram while some guy pedals. This was a wild experience in the Hanoi traffic made more bizarre by people on bikes approaching in a moving traffic stream and attempting to sell books and videos (and I think life insurance) - The trip took longer than expected because our worn out cyclist had miscalculated the combined Twomey weight and needed to get off and push on some of the hills.

We left the madness of Hanoi for a 3 day cruise on Halong Bay. There were about 12 people on the Junk and it was a bit of luxury in a unique and idyllic setting, with excellent food. Our fellow sailors were a friendly bunch, we spent a lot of time with an English couple from Derby (Ian and Lin) and an Aussie couple from Melbourne (Chris and Asher) generally chilling out - sailing, kayaking, swimming and just a little drinking.

We arrived back in Hanoi to experience one more night of madness before going south to Hue and the DMZ.