Another early start as we had to leave by 8am for the 4 hour journey to Halong Bay. Very excited as this sounds like it will be one of the highlights of the trip. After a stop off at a textiles shop we ended up at Halong Bay... It's not a world heritage site for nothing. Wow what stunning scenery, 1,969 small limestone islands dotted around the sea. Stayed on a boat just for our party of 17. Lovely air conditioned bedrooms with toilets and showers. Wonderful food...

Day one has been very busy.. Left the hotel at 8am and straight to join a massive queue to see Ho Chi Minhs body! And the nearby museum celebrating his life over the years. Then onto a welcomed lunch followed by the beautiful Temple of Literature. The Vietnamese give a lot of weight to education so this was interesting. Final stop was the Ethnology Museum which although very interesting was too hot and we had all lost enthusiastic for museums by that point. Back ...