14^th to 16th Nov. Spent a few days walking around Hanoi, great atmosphere. Some lovely shops with local craftwork, and also visited the museum of education, the first university in Vietnam, 1000 years old. You can’t walk on the pavements as shops and restaurants spread their chairs and wares across them, so you have to take to the road which is really tricky considering the number of cars and motorbikes that pack the streets. Anyway, so far unscathed, though we have had a few close encounters. The noise of bikes and hooters is constant. We then took the overnight train, soft sleeper, to Sapa in the hills, meant to be beautiful, and a chance to visit the hill tribe villages.

17^th to 21^st Nov Arrived Sapa in the cold and wet at 5am, checked into a hotel and cuddled up in double duvets to get warm for a few hours. It is a beautiful hill town built by the French as a summer retreat. It reminded us of places we had visited in N. India, very quaint, windy streets, but freezing. We spent a cold night in the hotel (no heating) and next day took a walk to visit some local villages. We were constantly hassled by ladies, who walked alongside us holding an umbrella and asking the usual questions, where you from? how old? and trying to sell us their craftwork. Sarah usually took pity and gave in. Unfortunately though, due to the large numbers of tourists here, the local village houses had been turned into shops and restaurants, so we got no insight as to how they live here. Had we gone on a longer trek into the hills no doubt we would have seen better, but the weather stayed cold, wet, and so cloudy that we couldn’t see more than a few yards. We sat it out in a warmer hotel for 2 days then gave up and returned to Hanoi by sleeper train again.

22^nd to 27^th Nov. Took the early bus for a few days touring around Halong Bay, a World Heritage Site, featured in James Bond movie, and Top Gear. We took a Junk around the bay, it was quite magical. The bay consists of thousands of limestone Karsts, pillars and islands of rocks, rising straight out of the sea. Visited the “Surprise Cave” quite impressive, though never found out what the surprise was, and spent the night moored up in a small bay with many other junks, it looked lovely. Next day we went kayaking under a rocky cliff into a beautiful lagoon, and then a bike ride to a remote fishing village on one of the islands. Couldn’t resist tasting the rice wine with a Cobra in it, boy did it have a bite! Spent the second night on the largest island called Cat Ba and decided to stay there for a few extra days. We stumbled across a tiny, deserted beach, which had a few beach huts for rent, so we moved in for 2 days. Had a lovely time lounging on what was almost our own beach. At night we were the only people there, so we built a log fire and sat around it for the evening, interspersed with a bit of moonlit, phosphorescent, skinny dipping. Next day, a bit more of the same, topping up our faded suntans. Arranged to hire 2 motor bikes for the next day, and tour round the island. As it turned out, I went with Ellen and Sarah had a day off. It was great fun once I remembered how to ride the bike, although Els got her first bike burn from the exhaust (see pic). That night Sarah went to the loo, and only when she went to flush it, did she realise that behind the seat had been the largest spider either of us had ever seen. Together with the cockroach infestation in our tiny hut, and the small lumpy mattress on the floor, we decided to change accommodation next day. We booked into the Cat Ba resort, still quite cheap, but with swimming pools and bathroom.  As it was off season there were more staff than guests. We found that the Vietnamese have little idea of personal space, and tend to be very in your face, frequently just standing right next to us and watching our every move.

A couple more days lounging here proved a lovely rest from the cities we had been visiting, and the fairly constant travelling we had been doing for the last 2 months.

28 to 31^st Nov Halong Bay to Hue (old capitol of Vietnam). We left Cat Ba for the start of 24hrs travel to Hue 500km South, first leg by boat back to the mainland, then bus to Hanoi, and then sleeper bus to Hue. That’s when the fun began. We had asked for midway seats bottom level on the sleeper bus as these are the most comfortable, and got a “Vietnam Promise” that they would be reserved. The bus arrived, and we got our luggage on, then went to find our seats. Not only were they not reserved, they had overbooked the bus, so we were asked to get off and get the next one 5 minutes later. No problem. An hour later when it arrived, Sar & Els got on the bus first and claimed our seats, I handled the luggage. When I finally got on the bus, I found that Sarah had been waging a war with the driver, as they wanted our seats for some Vietnamese passengers, who had supposedly paid extra for them. We dug in, and of course refused to move. Battle ensued, some of our luggage was ejected etc.. It all got sorted in the end, we had 2 top bunks midway, and Els the comfy lower bed.  Arrived in Hue, stayed at the Huang Ngoc Hotel, our cheapest yet at $10. Got a rickshaw ride round the “Citadel” and the Forbidden City, a similar layout as the Chinese one in Beijing. Unfortunately though, much of this one had been bombed during the Vietnam war when the Americans were trying to remove the VC from Hue. Next day we got a dragon boat up river and visited a couple of temples and a pagoda. Next stop, Hoi An.