Coming back to the Sheraton Hotel was like coming home, how impressive to be greeted by name in a 300 bed hotel. We arranged for a student guide to accompany us today, we visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the temple of literature, the prison and the B52 museum. It was an unusual day which included a lost lunch order, delaying us in the restaurant for over an hour which meant that Jan was on hand to administer first aid when another diner collapsed and a taxi ...

Christmas Day dawned bright and early with tai chi on the deck at 7.00am - a strange start to the day but worth the effort. After a cooked breakfast the six of us set off on a day excursion cruising the bay on a smaller boat. Once we dropped anchor four of us were up for kayaking and set off for one and a half hours exploring secret caves and lagoons around the bay. This was a first for Jan but she loved it and didn't even get wet feet. Upon returning to the bo...

On Christmas Eve we had a four hour coach journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay, but was it worth it!! Halong Bay has over 2000 islands, stretches for over 100km towards China and is absolutely beautiful. Although the weather was overcast the water was still a vivid green and rocky islands stunning against the skyline. There were eighteen guests on board - 16 Australians and ourselves. We met a group of 4 Aussies who we had a real laugh with, they also gave us lots...

We left Hue on the 21st travelling by overnight train to Hanoi. It was certainly with less apprehension this time that we boarded the train. Unfortunately the carriage we had was old, grubby and very noisy but we did manage to snatch some sleep rattling in to Hanoi station at 5.30am. Luckily our transfer to our hotel was there as we were in a very dodgy part of town, quickly surrounded by people who gave us the impression they would like to relieve us of our wa...

We spent the day walking the city by foot, checked out the railway station to be sure that we know where to catch the train tomorrow as it is stopping enroute from Saigon so we'll need to board quickly. We walked through a lot of local districts and small markets full of beautiful flowers and fruit. We also found a supermarket - the very first we have seen in over a fortnight in Vietnam. It was really interesting to check out the prices as there aren't even an...