As soon as we got off the night bus from Hanoi Hutch confidently declared that we were at the DMZ - when I later explained how I was pretty sure the overnight sleeper bus hadn't dropped us tourists right outside the de-militarised zone I think she understood my reaction! We were then pretty much stalked by a tout on a moped, who we couldn't shake off until we promised to look at his hotel. It turned out to be ok so we stayed there just to shut him up, but we didn't find out until too late that there was a load of building work going on outside, with a big noisy crane literally right outside our window!

Then we pretty much got straight onto a tour to see the old citadel and the kings tombs, which we were proud of ourselves for because normally we would have gone straight to bed for a nap!

Our first stop was the conical hat 'village' (ie a stall on the side of the street), where they make this iconic piece of headwear and you can see images as the light shines through (if you squint). Really it was just another chance for them to say "hello, you buy something?!"

We saw three different tombs, which were all pretty impressive. These were the sites where monarchs from the dynasties before Ho Chi Minh's Presidency began lived, worked and were ultimately buried. The grounds of each one were expansive with gardens and lakes etc which we could have appreciated even more if it hadn't been peeing it down! Still some beautiful architecture though!

Then we had a buffet lunch (which reminded us of the scrum days from Australia), before heading out to the old citadel. It is mostly in ruins now after it was bombed in the war with America, but it was still good to see and appreciate how big it used to be, even if it was a very short visit with our tour guide not really telling us anything about it!

The rest of the afternoon consisted of a short 'tea break' where we drank green tea and tried weird Vietnamese snacks, a visit to a random person's house, looking at the Thien Mu Pagoda (one of the most famous structures in Vietnam) and a boat ride (yet another one) along the Perfume River back to town. I think we both agreed the morning was our favourite part of the trip but it was good to have seen everything in a day!

For dinner that night we had the most AMAZING curry at an Indian restaurant next to our hotel. It really hit the spot after a day with not much food! We also went for a drink in the backpacker area, and on the way over were propositioned with lots of standard "hello.... Moto?!" with and added twist of "marijuana" being whispered at the end!