Another early start and another time to say goodbye, this time to Chris and Alex. Although sad to be leaving them I was also excited to be having my own adventure again! Another drawn out bus ride and we arrive at the delta ready to explore new delights. As we cruise down the delta we are treated to some floating markets...admittedly I was slightly disappointed and thought they'd be larger and more 'active'!?! We stop at a cocout candy store...amazing! As well as...

So within hours of arriving in this place I can clearly say that this is my favourate place so far! Vietnam has a real French feel about it anyway, but in this place I could seriously be in the middle of France. Lots of quaint little wooden houses in little cobbled streets, fishing boats all lined up and a real buzz about the harbour's edge, and over 200 tailors to spend your money in! The first night I enjoyed a beautiful traditional Vietnamese dish, where the c...

So, we arrived from the night train (where I had frozen to death from the air-con) and found a hotel with a nice clean and spacious room! After a well needed shower I explored the Citadel, a place where the emporers used to live (a city within a city) including the Imperial Inclosure and the FOrbidden Purple City - amazing buildings and detail on these. I met with Thomas for dinner who had heard from the boys who had in fact made it here. He suggested hiring bike...

An early start brought with it terrential rain for my 2day boating experience. As we circled the city picking up different people I began to wonder who I would be spending the next two days with aboard a boat with few hiding places. I lovely French couple (reminded me of mum&dad), 4 'clicky' germans, some chinese, some americans, and then there was James, a highly irritating, very 'public schoolboy' who had done and knew everything. For the first hr he slept,...

I sat myself down on the plane, making polite conversation with Thomas, an Austrian guy I was sat next to. It soon became apparent that, like me, he had no clue about Vietnam either. We discussed their currency and concluded that although we didn't know this, it was ok to spend US$ (of which we both had a small amount). Neither of us knew the exchange rate, or infact what to expect when we arrived in Hanoi. It transpired that neither of us had a hotel bookedor tr...