Rainy, rainy day in Hanoi today. But what does that matter? It's not the same sort of rain as at home. You wander through the downpour with an umbrella shielding you..... to an extent..... and if it's really torrential you just bunker down in a cafe and watch the Vietnamese world pass by. Lateish to get up and out this morning as we had to pack our belongings by 12 to release our room to its next tenants. Also, we had to finalise our plans for next week which are...

It's a long, long way from Wales to Hanoi as we found out during our day or so travelling by taxi and aeroplane via Munich and Singapore. It was Saturday, 5.30 a.m. when we hauled the last of our suitcases into the back of the taxi outside our house. So at 1 p.m. on Sunday I wasn't at my most alert or most patient as we wilted, watching the carousal in the arrivals area at Hanoi wind around endlessly until our luggage was finally propelled from a subterranean cel...

A week before we leave and I'm only writing an entry here to ensure that I can persuade my ipad to allow me to write some sense on a tiny keyboard and then whizz my words through the ether and onto the screens of anyone else in the world who might have the minutest interest in my inconsequential journals. Not packed yet. And some of my plans are unravelling. Had hoped to have a tour of Hanoi with Hanoi Kids which according to the travellers' bible (i.e. tripadvis...