We caught an overnight train from Hanoi to Sai Pai. I had memories from my Thailand to Laos train from back in the day on a boys trip, and thought if it was anything like that, then a lot of complaints would be coming Dads way from Ruby. However it was the opposite, with cabins of four resulting in Dad and myself with two randoms, who I thought were Malaysians as I could understand their dialogue to a degree due to my Indonesian. We arrived in Lai Moi around 7...

Kicked off the day with a great breakfast of fruit and omelettes. We are staying in the old part of Hanoi, so the place is very crowded with a plethora of intersecting streets that seem to have no logical construction. Regardless, the old quarter revolves around the lake in the centre, which is revered to a degree by the locals due to an old religious legend halting the Mongol Invasion back in the day. The lame was great, providing many picturesque views and m...

The family trip started with a 0300 start for myself from Canberra to Sydney International Airport where I was to meet the family. This was constantly frequented with texts from the mother asking if I had the family passports which I had personally seen to that we had Vietnam visas. Regardless, pending a fair bit of traffic on the M5 due to traffic, i managed to make it to the rendezvous with the family with passports in hand, much to the delight of Trishy girl...