We visited Halong Bay, which means 'where the dragon decends into the sea', as legend has it a dragon who lived in the mountains came down to the coast and its tail gouged out valleys, which became filled with water, leaving only the high points of the land visible! We boarded our Chinese Junk boat and headed out to sail around the bay, having lunch along the way, which was amazing. All of the meals we had on board had course after course of fresh seafood; hu...

We arrived in Hanoi early in the morning and got a taxi to the Old quarter, after checking into a hotel, we decided to do a walking tour of the old city. We saw the infamous red bridge, that leads you over the Hoan Kien Lake to the Ngoc Son Temple. The temple is dedicated to the scholar Van Xuong, General Tran Hung Dao (13th century) and La To (the patron saint of physicians)!! All the streets in the old quarter are known for a certain type of shop, so we saw;...

Our last few hours in Hoi An were spent making final changes to and collecting our new clothes and shoes, which we were really pleased with, but thank God we are on a tight budget, or we'd need a trailer to transport all the clothes we could have bought - we'll definitely be back though! We then headed for Da Nang to catch our train to Hanoi - another 16 hour journey! The train follows the coast all the way north and so the journey was really picturesque.

We decided to try a cookery course with the Red Bridge Cookery School. Our first stop was the Central market, where our guide took us around and explained all the ingredients we would be using and what to look for in fresh ingredients, which was really interesting. Early in the morning it was bustling with locals haggling for their fresh food which was great to see and smell! We then boarded the boat to head to the Cookery School. When we arrived we visited th...

Hoi An is famous for it's many tailors, so in order to fully experience the culture of Hoi An, we decided to get some clothes made! As soon as we arrived we went to Yaly Tailors to be fitted, to allow time for any adjustments. They had hundreds of catalogues and magazines to look through and they just copy the designs. After choosing a skirt and dress for Laura and a top and skirt for Holly, we chose our fabric and then had every part of our body measured!! W...