Our last full day in Vietnam today - just enough time left to see some of the main sights in Hanoi. After breakfast we took a taxi to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex, just in time to have a look at Uncle Ho's embalmed body. It's only open until 11am and is closed on Mondays and Thursdays (last time we were in the city was Monday so we couldn't go then), and for 2 months each year it is closed while he goes to Russia for maintenance! So we were quite lucky to be...

After a good night's sleep in the peaceful bay, we enjoyed a big breakfast and spent our last few hours on the boat chatting in the dining room. On the way back, we stopped at the largest floating village in the bay and were offered a boat trip around it, but it was a bit overpriced and we could see most of it from our boat, so we stayed on board. I got off for a look at one of the fish they keep in huge tanks on one of the platforms, ready to sell. They included...

Off to Halong Bay today so we left our rucksacks at the hotel and just took our small bags with the stuff we needed for overnight. We got picked up in a minibus/transit van, which wasn't very comfortable with about 12 people squeezed in! I hoped we were being taken to a bigger bus but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Our guide, Thanh, who looked about 12, introduced himself and explained it would take us about 3 hours to get to Halong City where we would board...

As we arrived in Hanoi this morning, the rain was lashing down - the worst we've seen for a while! We got off the bus and sheltered in a shop doorway while we got our bearings. We managed to find a taxi to take us to our hotel, where they had a room ready for us even though we were very early! We checked in and then went back down to reception to book our Halong Bay tour for tomorrow morning. We managed to get a pretty good deal; we picked the 'superior' option a...

After breakfast this morning, I spent a few hours finishing and sending off a job application - it's quite difficult to do in a short time frame and I think I could have done it better, but we'll see what happens! At 1pm we were picked up in a minivan and taken to the bus station for our bus to Hue, which will be followed by the sleeper bus to Hanoi. It's a longer journey than the last sleeper bus but we're hoping it will be more comfortable this time (working a...