Apologies for the long blog entry, we went a bit tour crazy in Hanoi booking trips to Halong Bay and Mai Chau. We felt it was a good time for using some of our wedding fund money too so thank you to everyone who contributed, we were thinking of you on our tours...

So we left Hoi An for Hanoi and again to break up the journey we stopped off half way in a town called Hue. We were only to be in Hue for about 6 hours so planned to walk round the old citadel and visit the castle and other temples within. However when we arrived it was pouring down (the weather was getting progressively colder and wetter as we went north) and so we took shelter in an English style pub with free internet and pool. The rain didn't desist so we had to stay in the pub till getting our overnight bus. The sleeper buses in Vietnam are really cool; instead of seats there are beds (They're not the comfiest in the world but an interesting way to travel). When we arrived into Hanoi we hadn't booked anywhere to stay As we looked at a few overpriced guesthouses we were accosted by a weird Japanese man who recommended the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. We hadn't stayed in any hostels up till this point and decided to give it a try when they told us how cheap it was and that they had double bunk beds available. The hostel turned out to be one of the best things in Hanoi with a movie room upstairs and bar downstairs. The night we arrived we were so exhausted from travelling that we sat in the movie room, drinking cheap happy hour priced beer, watching Anchorman and Dumb and Dumber.

Our first full day in Hanoi we spent walking around the old city. We visited the temple in the Hoan Kiem Lake and followed the walking tour they suggest in the Lonely Planet. For lunch we found a cool hidden restaurant which overlooked the lake and ate some delicious Vietnamese food. We also spent some time at the Ethnology museum looking round the full scale traditional Hill Tribe houses. We actually spent so much time exploring the various tribes house styles that we hardly had any time left to look round the proper museum, think the architecture geek was coming out again... That evening we'd planned to book our tours for the following days, we also needed to burn some photos to DVD as the camera was full. It turned out we picked the chattiest man in Hanoi to burn our images and by the time he was done, giving us his life story and finalising our discs, the tour agents was shut and we nearly missed the restaurants for dinner too.

Because we'd missed the tour agents the night before we had another day of sight seeing in Hanoi. First we got our tour to Halong Bay and Mai Chau booked though. Once we were sorted for the next few days we wandered up to the markets to sample the famous street food and were not disappointed. The way we decided what to eat was by wandering up and down the different stalls till we saw somebody eating what we liked the look off. Then when we sat down the person running the stall served us that dish, they only make one dish so we found this the best technique. After gorging ourselves at the markets we decided to be a bit more cultural and so went to see a performance of water puppetry which is famous in the Hill Tribe villages. This was the most surreal show we've seen yet. The puppeteers operate the puppets from behind a curtain in the water and move them about to traditional style music in a sort of Vietnamese Punch and Judy show. It was rather corny but we also quite enjoyed the strange scenes acted out by the puppets such as fishing and swimming. To round the eveneing off we found a chilled little bar playing nice techno music. We sat at tables on the floor on a deck level above the bar chilling out before our 3 day tour of Halong Bay.

We opted for a slightly more expensive tour of Halong Bay. They were offering a tour in the hostel but when we heard it was called the "Rock Hard, Party Hard Tour" and decided it wasn't really going to be our thing... As soon as we got onto the bus for our tour we met a couple from Australia called Gav and Lauren who we got chatting to. The first obligatory stop on the trip was a pearl factory where we were told all about the pearl industry and how the pearls at this particular shop were the best in the world. Very unimpressed by the whole setup we got back on the bus (I mean who would buy a 300 dollar pearl necklace on a whim, after being dropped off by a bus on a tour????). When we arrived at the pier we were really impressed with the junk boat we'd be spending the night on. It had a large deck that you could get out on to (even though it was quite wet and windy we still had some amazing photo opportunities) and the sleeping quarters were really plush too. After drifting between the famous rocky formations of Halong Bay we arrived at an enormous cave that we had chance to explore. Following this we jumped in some kayaks to see the place from a different perspective and found some wonderful caves that we could paddle right into and even through. That evening back on the boat we had a feast fit for a king and tried our hand at squid fishing too; only one person was actually able to catch anything though! The next morning we sailed to one of the islands called Cat Ba where we would be spending a night in an eco-lodge. We had the craziest driver who insisted on playing really loud rave music al the way. We stopped for a quick look round Hospital Cave where the Vietnamese had actually built a hospital in a cave to treat injurred soldiers during the war, then got on the party bus. As we were driving to get lunch everyone on the bus started dancing to this crazy drivers music and even Enis was even copying the bleepy noises "Beek, beek, beek. Beek, beek, beek." I don't think the driver had ever had this reaction before as he looked completely shocked by how crazy the bus had just got... After a cycle to a deserted beach and another filling meal we were driven to the Eco-Lodge where unfortunately we had to say good by to the rest of our group as only we and 2 guys from Barcelona had booked to stay at the Eco-Lodge. It wasn't so bad though. We were greeted by an American working at the resort who took us for a hike up into the hills. From the top we got a great view over the island and on the way back down we visited a small indigenous village. That evening after another massive meal we joined up with some of the locals and other travellers for a game of dice. The locals were getting very animated which made the game even more fun. After dice most people retired to their rooms (it was only 8 o'clock too) so we sat out with the American tour guide and looked at the stars which due to the remote location were crystal clear in the cloudless sky. In the morning we left the lodge early and met back up with the rest of the group who had stayed in a 4 star hotel in town. They all looked a bit bedraggled as we found out they'd been on the lash that night and had a crazy night night hitting the bars around town. We were pretty gutted we'd missed out on the party but when we started the 8 hour journey back to Hanoi we felt a bit of relief...

When we arrived back to Hanoi wewere totally exhausted from the Halong Bay trip so we got an early night. We also had a trip to Mai Chau booked for the next morning so needed to get a good nights sleep for the hiking. We were picked up early by the minibus and first thing we noticed was the age of the group was a little bit older than the last group we had been with. None the less we got chatting with a nice couple from Switzerland. After a 3 hour drive to Mai Chau we were ready to start hiking and stretch our legs off. We walked through several small villages where the children would run out and scream Hello at you. After 1 hour we stopped for some lunch to refuel as the next trek would be 3 hours through hills and forest to reach our homestay. The scenery on this hike was so beautiful, there is a place in North Vietnam called Sapa where alot of tourists go to hike but because it has become so popular people get alot of hassle from locals trying to sell the wares. This place is more remote and has gained the nickname "Little Sapa" which was really fitting as we passed by the terraced rice paddies cut into the hills. When we arrived at the homestay the children again were so happy to see us they ran out and yelled at us, even when we were sat cooling off having a drink they came and played hop scotch near to us so they could see what was going on. For dinner we were invited into the families home to eat with them in the traditional way cross legged on the floor. Every 5 minutes they would raise their glass and we would all drink rice wine together. After finishing a whole bottle the conversation between us travellers flowed long into the night... The following day feeling nice and fresh (I know this sounds like a joke but I actually felt ok, it must be down to the fresh air!) we hopped on some bikes and pedalled our way round some more villages and past more rice paddies. After a much needed lunch our trip was finished. Other people had booked longer trips so we said our goodbyes and were driven back to Hanoi in our own private car. This was to be our last night in Hanoi and Vietnam as we had booked a flight to Vientienne in Laos for the following day. We spent the morning buying postcards to send back home, packed our stuff up and jumped on a bus to the airport to continue our travels in yet another country...