Well we slowed down today which was a nice change. Firstly we went to a local charity called Children Hope in Action which helps local disabled and disadvantaged children. It was run by an Australian lady called Jeanie who is over for 3 years building on the work. They provide food and sponsor children through school and cater for disabled children every day helping them become moe mobile and give their family a rest. It was a lovely part of the holiday bringing ...

Another early breakfast and we were on the bus at 8:30 leaving behind Hue for Hoi An. This involved a 3.5 hour coach ride. We left the main road to go up the pass the strides the mountains that split north and south Vietnam. Phi gave us a bit of a language lesson on the way where he tried to explain that most words have 5 different meanings depending on the tone you use when saying them. These are identified by the accents on the letter... Very interesting.... So...

Happy Birthday Lily Started the day looking around the Citadel and then onto a tomb... The girls have really had enough of museums and buildings so it is good that there are no more scheduled in.... Phi our guide has been filling us in on the Vietnamese history very well and his historic capacity knows no limits.. All very interesting although hard to retain. Another hot day so we were all relieved when we reached the lunch venue. Another rendition of happy birth...

Arrived in Hue at 8:48 and then straight to the hotel where our rooms were ready. Not a fantastic nights sleep but the train was good fun. Went to visit a famous Pagoda and then a trip down the river. Also went to a local families house for lunch and had a look around. The grand mother was 90 years old and showed us the knife she is using to cut food which had a big area that had worn almost to nothing, she had only used three knives her whole life! Had time to t...

Breakfast at 8am on the boat and then a quick demonstration by the chef on how to prep decorative vegetables whilst the boat ambled its way back to port. Found out that a Typhoon is heading to Halong Bay and that no boats permitted to go out for next two days, that was close we were so fortunate with the weather. Jumped on the coach and 4 hours back to Hanoi with a stop off at a fantastic ceramics factory where we saw the pottery process from start to finish. Sma...