We arrived in Hanoi after a fourteen hour night bus trip from Hue and the last thing we needed was people pecking our heads and all claiming that they were from Sinh Cafe and the person next to them was lying. So what do you think we got?? We went with one of them as it was a free ride into town, but then when we got a taxi from their dodgy little hotel, the driver didn't speak a word of English and just followed his mate on a bike around while he tried to get us to this hotel or that hotel all the while claiming he both hadn't heard of ours, and that it was no good. Strange how that works! In the end we sacked off our magical mystery tour of Hanoi and walked to the nearest hotel, got a map of the city and within five minutes we were at our hotel and ready to check in.

Of course this was at 7:00am and check in wasn't until 12:00. We had a wash in the hotel toilets (well, in the sinks in the toilet area at least) and decided that we might as well make the most of being up so early. This of course meant finding some breakfast. We found a nice little pub aptly named "Le Pub" and tucked into a hearty fry up, before venturing out to see what the city had to offer.

First stop was (the official) Sinh Cafe to organise our trip to Halong Bay. We booked a three day, two night cruise with one night on the boat and the other night on Cat Ba Island. We even got a free pick up from our hotel.

With no particular place to go (thank you Chuck) and a couple of hours to kill we wandered around the market streets of Hanoi. These are not markets as we know them however, as each street sells only one thing no matter how many shops and stalls are on them. If you want footwear you go to one street, t-shirts you go to another, sweets has yet another street and there is even a whole street where the only things that are sold are gravestones and headstones! Everybody is competing with the shop next to them but nobody seems to mind at all.

After about an hour we really became very conscious of just how bad you can smell after fourteen hours on a packed bus with dodgy air con, and a couple of hours in the extreme heat so we headed back to our hotel.

They let us check in an hour early and they were the best showers we had ever had!! After freshening up, we picked up the camera and walked back along some of the more touristy areas. At the centre of the Old Quarter where we stayed is a big lake where we had seen people doing Ti Chi earlier in the morning, and in the lake is Turtle Temple. Legend has it that the King of Vietnam was given a sword by the gods that helped him fight of the Chinese, and one day after the war was over he was walking by the lake when a giant turtle came up, grabbed the sword from him and went under water, thus returning it to the gods once more.

We walked around to the old East Gate, thinking we'd see this grand old archway or something that was the old entrance to the city that would be lavishly decorated and looked after. Instead we saw a rundown concrete arch that people still use today, which was a bit disappointing. Next stop was a small temple out towards the top end of the city, but this too was run down. So much so that we were unsure if they were demolishing it, or in the early stages of restoring it!

The rest of the sights though were just as we have come to expect from Vietnam. Nothing like we had imagined, but well preserved and all with a beauty unique to themselves.

As we have an early start in the morning (it's not all late nights and sun bathing you know....) we decided on an early dinner and something light. So we popped into a French cafe and ordered just a small sandwich. Yeah right! Out came a roll the size of a small tree trunk that was filled to the brim. You might struggle to believe this, but we actually found it hard to eat it all! But we managed and even found a little room for some cake!

Then it was back to the hotel, and an early night in preparation of what lay ahead in Halong Bay.