Met up with Pete and Ros in Hong Kong for 3 days. It's a public holiday on May 1, International Labour Day, and Hong Kong is packed. We took the tram to Victoria Peak and walked around the gardens, resisting the temptation to visit Madam Tussauds. On day 2 we took a bus to Stanley, through the mountain and out the other side where there are sandy beaches and high rise holiday resorts. We watched a dragon boat and had a lazy lunch at a beach bar before the 20 min...

Slept well at last, explored Hanoi , watched the preparations for Liberation day and the coming public holiday and bought some silk. Our bags are now fully expanded!

Bai Tu Long is the less commercial brother of Ha Long Bay, as featured in Top Gear and many films. We arrived on the overnight Fansifan train from Cai Lao at 5.30, getting used to early starts! It was a long drive on potholed roads to Hon Gai harbour where we were ferried out to Red Dragon I, our junk. There were only 9 of us guests and 7 crew so we were well looked after. There are 1969 islands and islets in the two bays, and many of the larger ones have caves...

Well the sleeper train had air conditioned rooms with 4 bunks. We were in the posh cabins in the last 2 carriages of a very long train. The station in Hanoi was quite chaotic, thank goodness we had our guide as we crossed railway tracks, dodged mopeds then clambered up into the carriage. We didn't get much sleep, as although the bunks were comfortable enough the train rattled and jolted, stopped and started until at 6 am we reached Lao Cai, half an hour late due...

Doing our bit for Culcher. Hanoi has a quite different flavour to Hoi An, in spite of being an anagram. The city is as busy as Ho Chi Minh City, with as many scooters and mopeds, but is grubby and unkempt off the main roads. Last night we ventured as far as the nearest ATM, to withdraw the maximum 2 million Dong ( roughly £56) but the roads were so difficult to cross, it was drizzling, dark and smelly so we scuttled back to the hotel and ate in their restaurant...