Arrived Hanoi early and almost got taken to a fake hotel by an unmarked taxi. Luckily we grabbed our bags from the boot as we woke up more and realised what situation we were in. We walked to the Old Quarter and found another cheap hotel. It was pretty average but we were tired and needed somewhere. Hanoi is huge like
Ho Chi Minh with motorbikes everywhere. The small streets in the old quarter are so busy with no footpaths as everyone is building, fixing and selling on the path. They do everything on the footpath. We went to Ho Chi Minh museum which was all about his life and achievements. Visited the presidential palace and saw Ho Chi Minhs house and old cars. We saw his body inside the mausoleum which was quite bizarre but the number of tourists and locals lining up was surprising. We went to the temple of literature which was Vietnams first university. Students were graduating the day we were there so that made it more interesting and very busy. We have found it really difficult finding places to eat at a reasonable price here unlike every other place we have been to in Vietnam. There are coffee shops left right and centre but not as many restaurants. The old quarter is really interesting with different streets for specific goods. For example there is a button street, blacksmith street, rope street, padlock street, Christmas decoration street etc etc. We walked around for hours trying to source a good company to do a Halong Bay tour with. We read on line about all the scams about companies that don't exist and tourists not seeing half of what they were meant to, so we were a bit skeptical about booking. We read on trip advisor about an amazing company ODC travel with a great guide called Nam. So we hunted and found there head office and booked for a 2 night 3 day trip. The bus picked us up on the first morning along with the other 4 people on our tour. So in total 6 plus guide and boat staff. We drove 4 hours to Halong City where we boarded our boat. It was huge for our small group with small cabins all with lovely linen and a marble bathroom. It was luxurious for us after staying in some average accommodation. We were welcomed on board with a drink and some fruit. We enjoyed an amazing seafood lunch with squid, whole fish, and prawns. After lunch we kayaked around an island where we walked up to a look out and swam. We also played beach volleyball which was fun. Lots of Asians joined in and heaps took photos of us. A couple of American kids joined in too which was nice. In the evening we were shown how to make spring rolls and had dinner. We attempted squid fishing but no luck as wrong time of year. Our boat parked up in the sleeping area of Halong Bay where we slept in our cute cabins. Early start on day 2 with eggs for breakfast before visiting the amazing cave. It had three chambers which increased in size. They were very huge and impressive. We transferred to a smaller boat where we were taken to do more kayaking and swimming. The weather was average and it rained for part of the day. However the scenery was still amazing and we still enjoyed kayaking around the small islands. We continued to Cat Ba island where we stayed in a hotel the night. It was only a 3 star but it was brand new and very flash. We had free time for the afternoon before meeting for dinner at 7. We ended up buying some cheap tiger beer from a close by restaurant and had a room party with the other guys until we met our guide for dinner. Dinner was delicious. Buffet style with heaps of seafood. We headed to what looked the only happening bar in Cat Ba island so we had a few drinks there. Mostly all tourists in the bar which was fun. The music was played through YouTube so you could request any song you wanted. Met lots of English people and a few ozzies. The next morning was an early start where we had breakfast and boarded the small boat. We transferred onto the bigger boat and headed back to Halong City and then bussed to Hanoi. After a long bus ride back we made it to the busy city and checked in to our different hotel. We were exhausted after the full on three days so bummed in hotel room and had our favourite steet food called bun my which is a BBQ kebab with delicious salads and chilli sauce. Only $1 so cheap meal for us. After a huge sleep in we walked around the old quarter in the rain and checked out the markets. It was so busy and we were too tired to deal with it so spent lots of time in the hotel reading and making plans for chiang mai. The last few days were pretty cold with temperatures around 18-20 which is cold for us!!! We have found the local people are less friendly here and trying to rip us off more than the south of Vietnam. Also English isn't as common which makes things difficult at times. For our last day in Hanoi we spent most of it walking around trying to find the dog meat street. No luck although we found one restaurant selling dog meat. Yuck!! We walked around for about 5hours but managed to find some friendly locals who didn't rip us off when buying bread and jack fruit. Was nice looking around the out skirts of a big city. For dinner we enjoyed BBQ beef where you cook it yourself on a wee burner and add veges and garlic. Yum! Tomorrow morning we are catching a plane to Chiang Mai via Bangkok. More updates from our final place on our trip.