Gosh it was cool when we arrived in Hanoi and it was real hat and gloves weather.  This is apparently typical, although it did warm up nicely as the week went on. 

Hanoi was really great.  We loved the narrow, busy, motorbike-filled streets (and got really adept at weaving our way across the roads!) and the hustle and bustle of street sellers and shops full of everything.  We stayed in the old town, which is the most interesting part of the city around Lake Hoan Kiem. Our hotel was only a few steps away from a crossroads of narrow streets and on each corner was a Bia Hao place where we enjoyed a daily glass of beer for 2,000 Dong (about 14p).  Apart from the obvious sightseeing, shopping and an evening at the famous water puppet theatre, we saw Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum (he looks in much better nick than Mao Tse Tung in Beijing - possibly because Uncle Ho had just come back from his annual jaunt to Moscow for a touch-up), presidential palace and stilt house where Uncle Ho lived.  We also went round his museum which was pretty heavy on anti-West propaganda - and where be bumped into Ludovic again (see Hue postcard).  With the sun now out and the weather warming up nicely, we had a very pleasurable visit to the Temple of Literature, the first university in Vietnam dating back to 1070. Spirits were further lifted by the purchase of jewelleryand a blouse for Margaret, a shave for Eric and a couple of Bia Haos!

We undertook two overnight trips from Hanoi: 

Tam Coc (100km south), for a tranquil boat trip on the Ngo Dong river in the shadow of wonderful rock formations (karst) similar to Guilin in southern China, which we unfortunately didn't manage to see.  The scenery was breathtaking and we were pleased to have done it in the morning before the busloads, and therefore boatloads, of tourists arrived. From there we were going on to stay overnight in Cuc Phuong National Park so, thinking about the evening's refreshments, Eric headed off in search of a bottle of wine.  It turned not to be as easy as he thought.  However, eventually he came back with what appeared to be a bottle of wine, very pleased at the price of less than a pound, only to discover on closer inspection that it was apricot fortified liquor!  Turned out to be quite good actually;

First stop on arrival at Cuc Phuong was a visit to the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre.  This was one of the main reasons for the trip.  They have a large number of, mainly, lemurs various species of which have been rescued from poachers.  They are beautiful creatures and the Centre does a great job of rehabilitating them and eventually releasing them back into the wild.  Our overnight accommodation was a wooden bungalow in the middle of the Park, surrounded by jungle.  It was so peaceful, particularly since we were the only ones staying and only had electricity between 6pm and 10pm.  However we were a bit disturbed by a 'lodger' which made its presence felt just after we went to bed and then again at about 7 in the morning.  We think it was probably a nocturnal striped squirrel.  Next morning our guide took us on a shortish hike through the jungle to see a 1,000 year old tree and a cave where remains of prehistoric man were found.  Over the two days we saw a good range of colourful and varied birdlife;   

But we saved the best for last - a two-day cruise in Halong Bay on a Chinese junk-style boat.  There were scores of similar looking boats, quadruple moored at the harbour and our boat happened to be the 4th boat out!  As you can imagine, it was a real scramble to reach it and involved climbing over several boats, balancing on very edge of balustrade and 'dreeping' down into the next boat - as so on and so on.  No Health & Safety Act in Vietnam.  This was even more apparent when the petrol boat came alongside to fill us up.  This was manned by a bunch of young laddies who were soaked in petrol - and no much wonder when the hose kept becoming detached with petrol spewing everywhere!  We were relieved to make a safe exit from the harbour. 

A Spanish couple on the trip turned out to be the same couple who were on our bus for the journey (and border crossing) from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City.  Boy, do we ever keep bumping into people!!  Anyway, back to Halong Bay, well deservedly a World Heritage site.  It is sooooo beautiful and the scale of it is immense - around 3,000 tree covered islands stick up out of the translucent greeny-blue water.  According to local legend it was created when a giant dragon that lived in the mountains rushed down to the sea.  As it headed to the coast its tail gouged out valleys and crevasses and when it plunged into the sea the bits dug up by the tail filled with water.  We slept overnight on the boat, which was actually a bit of an old tub and not very much like the photographs we'd been shown by the tour office where be booked.  But hey, that seems to be par for the course in Vietnam - no Trade Description Act here.  But it wasn't expensive and most of the boats were much the same - so be aware. Anyway, it was lovely watching the sun going down and falling asleep to the rocking of the boat.  It was just a pity that it was too dark to do the kayaking we'd been promised.  December is probably just a bit too late in the year as the daylight hours aren't quite long enough. We got back to Hanoi late Saturday afternoon in good time for an early meal, packing and early to bed for an early start the next morning for our flight to Bangkok.  Really disapppointed to get an email from our friends Pat and Steve who were arriving in Hanoi for a holiday on the very day we were leaving, so another chance to meet up was missed.