Good morning Vietnam!

Today was our final day in Vietnam and are off to Thailand tomorrow so thought we would tell you about our adventures today before we jet off. Our plan today was to get out and see the sites of Hanoi which are located a little further from the city centre. These sites are all walkable from our hotel but it is so hot in Hanoi it takes a bit of time to get there and when you do eventually arrive you are a bit of a sweaty mess so we had avoided it the previous days.

We had a slightly later start than normal (think we were all pleased to have a lay in) then set off out to our first visit to the Hanoi Prison, Hao Lo. We stopped off briefly at a fancy ice cream parlour the girls had been craving a visit too called 'Fannys' for a cooling ice cream half way. The ice creams themselves where incredible (see pictures) and the whole restaurant was set out like an American dinner. Once we arrived at the prison we were surprised at how small it looked even though we knew only a small part still stood as a museum. It was only when we went inside and saw the old maps and scale models that we saw how large it originally was. The prison itself was really quite depressing; not much better than our visit to the war remnants museum in Saigon but we persisted and ventured round. The prison was originally built by the French Colonists in the 1800s to house political prisoners who stood against them. According to the museum they were massively mistreated by the prison officials and led to large numbers escaping to increase the resistance's support. We also found out that the prison was used during the American war as well to house American pilots who got shot down. They were treated much better as they were prisoners of war although it must have been quite worrying for many as they spent 6 years inside with no contact to the rest of the world. One of the inmates at that time was John McCain the current senator of Arizona who ran against President Obama at the last US presidential elections.

From the prison we then wandered a little further out of the city to the Temple of Literature. Most things we had read and been told suggested this was a must visit place in Hanoi and the architecture was very impressive but it was packed full of tourists and people selling things to tourists and in our opinion we have seen better temples. It was quite nice to wander around but our time there was quite short lived before we left to find lunch with air-conditioning. For lunch we went for the group favourite of Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) and then set off back towards our hotel area.

I had planned a different route back so we could see a little more of the city but what I hadn't realised is this route took us back down numerous clothes shopping streets that weren't in the centre of the city. Therefore our walk back took some time and a few more purchases were made (all very nice things and again very cheap). We got back to the hotel just in time as just as we entered the rain started to fall again behind us.

We hid it out for a few hours while Katie went off for a £4 haircut round the corner - apparently they did quite a decent job although I'm not sure the 30 minute hairwash (hair-pulling) and ten minute face/eyebrow scrubbing that came with it went down as well! We went out for a late dinner to the same restaurant as the previous day because the food was so good. This time we did have slightly different things but doubled up on the spring roll ordering. We wanted to have a good last meal in Vietnam and it is also our last meal with Gemma as we leave her at Bangkok airport tomorrow. Our flight is early in the morning so have yet another early start so after dinner we just headed back to the hotel and started packing again.

Will update you all in a few days once we have explored Bangkok and can fill you in on our Thai adventure.

Lots of love

Martin, Katie and Gemma