March 17th (Tuesday) - Day 17 - Halong Bay to Han Oi
We woke up to find that 6 of the 7 people in our group had been ill the previous day. Not great going for our first full day in Viet Nam. And even worse we had a 4 hour drive to Han Oi. Needless to say we stopped a few more times than planned. Once at the hotel all we felt like doing was vegging out. After not eating for 24 hours we were starving but did not want to venture out so we ate some Oreo's we had stashed. Best lunch ever lol. We vegged out for most the afternoon but come the evening we were hungry again but needed something plain. We went out to look for a bakery but walked for miles and only place we found had nothing left. Instead we found a supermarket. It was that or KFC and I hate western KFC... I knew where the hotel was in relation to the supermarket but there were no roads leading there. We found the hotel eventaully but we walked for ages :(

March 18th (Wednesday) - Day 18 - Han Oi (Sarah's Birthday)
We met the group at 9am and headed off to see Uncle Ho. He was the leader of North Viet Nam back in the 60's and 70's and during the US and other wars. His body was on display in Han Oi. Once we got inside the mausoleum we found him in a glass tomb. To be honest it just looked like a wax work of him. All the Vietnamise where praying as they went past. Afterwards we had a look around his palace and round his museum. We caught a cab to the old quarter and wondered around the market. We even saw Britney's Speares tomb stone. We walked for ages getting lost many times until we found Hoan Kiem lake. From ther we got a taxi back to the hotel which was rigged to charge more as we paid 4 times more than we should have done. In the evening most of the group came out for Sarahs birthday dinner. We went to a really up market place. Saying that a main course was only 9 quid but when your used to paying 1 quid a meal it seems a lot. After dinner Sarah got given a card from the group and Jess had also arranged a dessert for us all. Sarahs came out with a candle with the words happy birth Sarah written in choc sauce. After dinner we went to see the Water Puppets. These were puppets that were on horizontal sticks and it was done to music under the water. It was really good for the first 10 minutes but then got a bit repetitive. Once it was over we went and sat on a roof top bar for the rest of the evening.

March 19th (Thursday) Day 19 - Han Oi

Had a bit of a lay in and met Tom and Lisa at half 9. Sarah was not feeling too good so stayed behind. We wondered over to the temple of literature. This was the first university setup in the city.We had a wonder around but where not 100% sure what we were looking at. We went back to the hotel to grab Sarah and then wondered over to the POW museum but it was shut from half 11 to half 1 so went for a coffee instead and pigged on on sweet food. My camara had decided to pack up that morning (not bad when I had only been using it for 19 days). So I tired to get it fixed but the guy did not have enough time. We went to the POW museum and it high lighted the time when the French ran it. Full of propergande but was good to see. As we were on the over night train to Hue we got some suppiles and waited in the hotel. The train left at 7. It was 2 up 2 down compartment which was clearly designed for Vietnamise but it was fine for one night. The journey was about 14 hours.