So Mez and I eventually made it to Vietnam with delayed flights after delayed flights. We were slightly concerned when arriving at the airport when over 40 mins later our bags had still not been sited on the baggage converbelt, however alas they arrived just as we were giving up hope. then another worry, no one to pick us up, even though I had emailed them twice about the pickup. Luckily once again, we just had to be patient and eventually someone arrived holding a wee sign with my name on it.

So actual Hanoi . . . went to the Hilton Prison Musuem, which housed the Vietnamese prisoners during the French holding on the country and of the American pow during their invasion. It was really interesting and worth the visit. Also went to the temple of literature which the oldest university in Vietnam. A walk round the lake and a visit to the temple on it was also on the agenda for one of our days.

Best thing, although was quite unexpected, we managed to get tickets to the puppet water show one of the nights, really worth it and we splashed out and got ourselves first class seats which cost a whopping 2 pound. Met all the other folk who were going to Halong Bay to us, which we left for on the 22nd. A horrible (my opinion) boat ride to cat ba. This took nearly the whole day as we stopped of at a cave enroute.

Monkeys!!!! the group of us kayaked to monkey island and we got to fed peanuts to the wild monkeys. then headed back to Hanoi. Arms are hurting like hell today :( but some of us headed to Ho Chi Minh mausoleum to see the body of their hero.

Shopping :) going to do that later on today before getting an overnight train to Hue. The group seems to be nice and a great variety of different people. Only thing is that they seem to have more money than I do and eating out here is much more expensive that what I was spending in China. No more 50pence noodles, but hopefully I can convince some people to eat cheaper, like the street food.

Hopefully I'll like Hue just as much as I liked Hanoi, until then