So today started about 10 , not to early again as we wanted a bit of a rest before the organised tour officially starts. I mean tomorrow we board the reunification express and will be on there for 14 hours, ..... So I know we will be exhausted,... We checked out of the Hanoi Capital and moved to the Hong Ngoc 2 hotel, which is where we meet the rest of our group......So today we had a walk of the bustling streets of Hanoi and I can honestly say I think we have cracked the crossing of roads, as you may of seen from previous photos, they are chaos,..... We decided today to explore the city itself so had a walk down to Hong Kiem lake , 5 mins from the hotel, walking around the lake and across the bridge to a small temple, which was beautiful. We didn't stay long as we wanted to visit Ho Chi Min's mausoleum and museum. So we jumped aboard a chi-chi, essentially a guy pedalling a bike with us in front. What an experience, feet first into traffic, scooters, cars, buses and lorries ,, fully exposed and no chance in the world. But we survived it and got to the mausoleum which was of epic scale, we looked like ants , and we loved it.. The museum was interesting, the historic fact was very interesting but some of the sculptors and descriptions just didn't make sense so we just took it for what we thought it was ,, art ... We then jumped back on the bike thing and headed back to the lake, where we had dinner, I opted for the local dish, 'pho' , a delicious beef noodle soup, total bill for two and drinks 9 dollars so 6 squids, Amez!...... Once having a walk around we headed back to the hotel as we were due to have the tour intro and meet up with the 16 others.... The intro felt like it was an AA meeting, every had a little intro, which really did feel a little awkward . But on we went for a meal in what seem like an attic with the tiniest of stairs and enjoyed some top quality Vietnamese tapas style food... This point was definitely a better way of getting to know the people and was less like the first day of college. We enjoyed the food then all went for a walk around the lake, which was lit up beautifully, followed by the night market (intense) then onto the hotel bar, where we stat for a few hours and really got to know a few of the people. I can honestly say we have some superb characters and very funny people and we are both looking forward to getting to know them more. I mean we've already had the invite to stay in Stockholm with a couple ... Defo on the cards next year. So yeah, ace day and even better tomorrow, official Hanoi city tour then off to the train stations, the group have already suggested crates of beer for the journey, great minds.... Class,.... Speak soon, Moon, o an actual rhyme. :-) ... X