Sapa Hanoi to Sapa I had already booked my 3 night, 2 day tour to Sapa before I left for Halong. It is a small town in the mountains, where more adventurous people like to go trekking. The trip began with a night train at 21.50, so I used my time in Hanoi to book an open bus ticket down the country and to buy some food for the journey. I had fun bartering in the busy market for fruit and then spotted a little supermarket where I purchased some chocolate and bis...

Halong Bay Hello All. I have been so busy over the last week or so that I have had no chance to update the blog. In order to catch up with myself I am going to group a few days together into trips. The first trip I took from Hanoi was to Halong Bay, a scenic location with thousands of small islands with more karst limestone peaks dotted about. Day 1 I was picked up from my hostel early morning in a transit van minibus. The journey was around 3.5 hours and to f...

Hanoi Day 3 It was another gloriously sunny day, the rain of the previous day seemed to be long forgotten, so I took the walk nice and slowly, so as to try and stay cool. I had decided to go and visit Hoa Lo prison. This was the central prison in Hanoi, built by the French, and is now a museum. The prison museum was really very good. The exhibits were well chosen and very well presented. It gave a very good picture of what life might have been like in there an...

Hanoi - Day 2 A took advantage of another free breakfast, uploaded some more photos onto flickr and eventually set out toward the Army Museum. Having negotiated my way across numerous busy streets I found the museum open, but closing for early lunch is 45 min. I decided to make my way back into town and see about booking a tour to Halong Bay. I wandered around until I found an official looking 'Sinh Cafe - Booking Office'. I had been informed that Sinh Cafe was...

Hanoi Ok, so I realised today (13th) that I have been suffering from an acute case of culture shock! The climate here is totally different from anything I have ever experienced before at 30degrees and very very humid. The city is crazy hectic with motorcycles everywhere. Crossing the road at certain times of day is like an extreme sport. Nevertheless, I have tried to make the best of things and adapt. I have been exploring the city and its hustling and bustlin...