So...woke up after a few hours sleep and contacted the canadian girls by email, (i had some frantic emails from them worrying for our lives- or they thought we'd dumped them or something! ha) we eventually tracked them down and they were ecstatic to see us and we were needing our spirits lifted!! we were miserable (lugged our bags through hanoi for 15 mins in the heat trying to find their hotel!) Was soooooooo good to be back with them and in civilisation. We went to get food and explored Hanoi. We stayed in the old quarter where there is a huge lake and loads of shops and stalls selling everything you could ever need! The main attraction there were the shoes and trainer shops selling fake trainers of every kind. The girls had been VERY busy the day before so guided us well. We also booked a 2 day/1 night boat trip to HaLong Bay which is a group of 2000 islands off the coast for the following day. We had an icecream by the lake and went out for dinner then it was bed early for us! The following day we went to HaLong Bay (Dads Birthday!!) As you can see there are umpteen photos of our trip to HaLong Bay- we had such a lovely relaxing time in-between jumping off the boat like crazy people! It was a lot of fun. We got taken to famous caves where the Legend of the reagon...later we discovered he meant 'Dragon' lived! It was very funny when we realised what he was talking about! The caves were beautiful, but lit by horrible neon coloured lights which were no neccessary! We also got rushed through like hoards of cattle! Apart from that, it was a great trip! Once the trip was over we went back to hanoi and headed south to Hoi An a place we had all greatly anticipated! It is the place where you can get loads of clothes tailor-made to your exact measurements for very cheap! Literally got loads of stuff made and 3 out of our 4 days there were spent going to appointments all over town. I got 3 suits made for my grown-up life i will hopefully adopt when coming home- at least i will be set for any interviews i may get! They cost a fraction of what they do at home- a suit (sirt and trouser combo) cost just $35 so approx 17.50 pounds! It was all great fun meeting up with the girls in their 5 minute breas between appointments and comparing notes! We all ended up getting duplicates of things others got etc- it was madness! Also very funny taling clothing items with the canadians! Their names for clothes are very different. Their word "shirt" translates to "vest top" in english! and there were lots of other crazy words too- it made discussing what we had bought a funny event! Hoi An as a place was lovely also, it is pretty much on the coast so we got a moped ride to the beach which is huge and absolutley beautiful. see pics. The town was lovely too full of little shops and the old town was very pretty- set next to a riverside. I wish we had had more time here, however i fear we would have spent far too much! After HoiAn we went south right down to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) where we visited the Cu Chi tunnels and the War remnants museum. It was a pretty depressing day and saw some horrific sights. I didnt like the museum at all, it was all very one sided- not that i am pro-american or anything (esp. when concearning the vietnam war) but it could have been less "look at what the americans did to us". It was horrible seeing what the human race is capable of. The aftermath of war is visible everywhere you go in Vietnam, there are a lot of casualties of war with missing limbs begging in the streets and people with terrible scarring from burns from chemical warefare and agent orange used to defoliate the jungle and forests! The country is doing its best to get back on its feet again, but it will be a while yet till the remnants of war are gone. We spent a few days in Saigon and apart from the cuchi tunnels and war museum, there was nothing else there we enjoyed. We didnt however, in all fairness spend long enough to have a proper opinion and see all the areas, but i prefered the other places i saw in Vietnam and wish we could have stopped in more places like NaTrang and Hue and along the coast more. Another trip, another time maybe. on to cambodia...