Our last day in Hanoi was terrific, another lovely breakfast (fried rice and scrambled eggs, mmm, seriously tasty!) at the smashing 'Hanoi Boutique Hotel No1', then out to roam this crazy city one last time. Sadly, we'd missed our chance to visit Uncle Ho, as his mausoleum is closed on Friday (perhaps that's his 'wash & brush-up day), so we hit the 'Temple of Literature', which was ok, pretty, but not 'all that', followed by 'Hoa Lo Prison Museum', otherwise ...

Sal's blog update sums the day up well, she came up trumps with a great itinerary which ticked all the boxes, Hanoi is great for shopping and food, and even though it's almost impossible to walk on the pavements or cross the roads, it's a great place to wander around just looking at stuff. I've read that Saigon ( Ho Chi Minh City ) is even busier, but I can't get my head 'round that, 'cos it's so mad here! Cracking stuff we've seen so far includes; a bloke on a ...

I decided to do an update as well as Jeff today as our 1st full day in Hanoi was so good. I will attach a health warning that the whole update is shopping & food related!! Great start to the day with Vietnamese brekkie - coffee made with condensed milk ( see photo for coffee action shot), noodles & fried fish lots of my fav things at one sitting. Into the city for my shopping itinerary for the day ( thanks to Luxe city guides) and the shops surpassed all ...

Wow, not a good start to our visit to Viet Nam, as we land, a pair of stupid Yanks on our flight mistakenly take my bag from the over-head compartment on the plane, I'm convinced my bag's been robbed, 'cos i didn't see them take it, and I'm panicking like Michael Jackson's Doctor! Then, magically, my bag re-appears, with someone else's guide-book in it, and I'm now convinced the Yanks have planted drugs in it! That wasn't the case, as it turns out, they weren't ...