Well we decided to just stay local for our last day in Ho Chi Minh so we had the option of rushing undercover during times of down pours. We took a long stroll around the city and visited the Vietnam War Museum, which was very good but very emotional in parts. In the evening we sampled some more Vietnamese cuisine in a restaurant next to the hostel, then headed back for an early night and to get packed and ready for our early flight the next day.

We flew from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi up in the north at 9:45am and got a shuttle bus to our hostel in the old quarter. We weren't ripped off this time and paid the usual rate for the transfer (we're not falling for that again after last time!)

The old quarter is like nothing we've experienced before. The town is like one giant maze market filled with streets that look almost identical. They are filled with bars, restaurants, shops selling various souvenirs, jewellery, foods or items of clothing, and there's many doorways with people cooking food and bringing it out to you on the pavements while sitting on miniature stools at a miniature table. The streets are narrow with loads of cars and mopeds flooding in all directions, though it's less intimidating crossing the roads here than the larger roads in Ho Chi Minh.

The staff at the hostel were very friendly and accommodating. The lady who checked us in even gave us a free upgrade from our triple room with shared bathroom, to a triple room with en suite and balcony. Though after entering our 'upgraded' room we began wondering how we'd managed to upset this lady so much in the first few seconds of meeting her for her to place us here. See photos. Regardless, the friendly staff made it bearable and we stayed there with no quibbles.

We immediately went back to see her (we really should get her name!) after dropping our bags off to book the trip that had brought us up north... our cruise around Halong Bay... the 'most beautiful part of Vietnam' (more to come on that). We also booked another day trip for our last day in Hanoi to Tam Coc that we can't wait for.

We spent the afternoon traipsing around the many streets of the old quarter and popping into shops, stopping for lunch in one of the tiny restaurants, FINALLY finding Hoam Kiem Lake (maps apparently aren't our thing) and had one of our best meals yet in the evening. There was one of these random street food vendors where they cook the food in what looks like a doorway/garage and we sat at one of the tiny tables on the pavement (though ours was actually in the road). We were basically told to have the BBQ meal by one of the workers as it's very good and he brought us a mini hot plate for our table and a plate filled with chicken, pork, beef and a selection of vegetables that we cooked ourselves (after some instructions on how to use it) and it was absolutely delicious! We had a couple of drinks afterwards in a bar next to the hostel before deciding to call it a night after one of the cheeky 21 year old reps started calling us 'mama' after we divulged our ages. He was actually very funny, and not the reason we left; we wanted to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for our 8am pickup for Halong Bay. More on that in the next blog....