The night bus arrived at about 8am and we headed over towards the hostel area. We had previously made a booking by email in a place called Hanoi Backpackers' Hostel, which was in a great location, but was dorm rooms and full of 18 year old gap yearers - which was a scene none of us was really in the zone for. But it was a good place to have a base none the less.

After sticking our bags in storage there and grabbing some breakfast, we internet-ed and pottered about in the local area making plans for the next few days. I had to wonder down to the Hanoi Towers building to pop into the Cathay Pacific office to make to changes to my flight plans, whilst the others did the same on the phone to their travel agents.

Hanoi is a huge city with the Hoan Kiem lake in the the middle and the "old town" area surrounding it. It's much more metropolitan than Saigon, and this is reflected in the fanciness of the restaurants/bars/cafes and the prices in the markets.

We found a little travel office on the same street as our Hostel and spend half an hour in there booking boat trips in Halong Bay, night trains to Sapa, and transport back down to the south again. Seems like an odd plan to start in the south, travel north, then go back down again; but we wanted more time in Saigon and the last couple of days on Phu Quoc island which is meant to be paradise.

After this was all sorted, with a nice little price-fox discount, we headed off on our very own walking tour. As planned by yours truly.

We headed down towards the old prison, which was part demolished to make way for an office building, but still part preserved for visiting. It was really interesting, quite sobering in parts, but mostly surprising. They showed first how the Vietnamese prisoners were kept and treated, then how the American prisoners of war were kept - the contrast being shockingly stark. It seemed like life in Hanoi prison for an American prisoner of war was a bit like halls of accomodation in University, they seemed to have a cosy life of relative luxury. Unfortunately the whole place had been repainted and the crumbling walls had been filled in with red-brick, so the place didn't feel like it was much of an authentic experience of what it was actually like, more a representation. Worth a visit all the same.

Next we went to the cathedral, which was beautiful, and fairly new as Christianity hasn't been about in Vietnam nearly as long as the older "Triple Religion" of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism mixed together - which is what most of the Vietnamese subscribe to.

Next we walked round the lake and visited the Sun Temple in the middle of the lake, which was famous for a huge model of a turtle inside, which apparently brings a years good luck to all who look at it. The island it was on was covered in old old men excitedly playing this strange game that reminded me of draughts.

After this we wondered through the markets and ate lots of fresh pineapple before going for a full body massage the other side of town which was mostly nice - though Vietnamese massage involves a lot of pressing on sore bits and hitting, which isn't so great on your head and face. The girls also had pedicures, Lydia giving too much artistic license to her lady, leaving with revolting diamonte things all over her feet.

Dinner was in a restaurant called 69 which had a lovely balcony overlooking the street, where we had a couple of bottles of Vang Dalat and finally celebrated our motorbike trip like we hadn't previously been able to.

On the way home we stopped off for a delicious Apple shisha pipe in this cool little bar near the hostel, and had another drink before getting an earlyish night to make up for the shoddy night before on the sleeper bus.