Hanoi is a mad place. We checked into the hotel late last night, and crashed straight away ready for today's (Wednesday) madness. The hotel is really beautiful and a real hidden gem within the craziness that is Hanoi. We started out with a walk around Hoan Kiem lake which is a large lake in the centre of Hanoi that has a bridge to a temple in the middle of it. We quickly learnt how to cross a road in Hanoi. It involves being brave and stepping out infront of a sea of noisy mopeds. It sounds worse than it is but it's kind of scary.

We walked up to an indoor market, which was more for the locals so we didn't buy anything. I'm saving my haggling skills for Sunday when we fly to Bangkok. We then ventured up to another lake near the Tran Quoc Pagoda, where we rented out a very old and squeaky Swan paddle boat. After a short boat ride around the lake we walked up to the Tran Quoc Pagoda (the oldest Pagoda in Vietnam). We then walked down to Ho Chi Minh area, where you can see Uncle Ho in the flesh, he's dead! Lucky for us it was closed as I didn't fancy staring at an embalmed body!

By this time we were tired from all of the walking and the humidity and the moped fumes! We headed back to the hotel where we enjoyed a nice relaxing massage and dinner. We are heading out on a one night boat trip to Halong Bay tomorrow. Miss you all x