It has been a long time since a blog has been written and I apologise. This has been for various reasons such as generally been busy, a little trickier to get long term internet use in China and a mild laziness. Oh well. As you will have gathered in my last sentence we are now in China; infact we have moved from Hanoi across the border to Nanning, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and we are currently in Chengdu, so alot has occured since my last blog. Today I will finish Vietnam and other the next few days you will get the rest; my christmas present to the world.

OK, Last few steps in SE Asia. Our bus journey from Hue to Hanoi was eventful. We met some lovely people, put up with lots of loud honking for no reason we could fathom and packing as many people as possible onto a sleeper bus. The joys of travel in SE Asia. So we got to Hanoi early and for some completely unknown reason we ended being navagational leaders to 4 other backpackers so we got to the old quarter and found somewhere nice to stay. Yay! Our first day was limited to finding our bearings as we had not got much sleep thanks to honky horn man. So very early to bed. Our second day was supposed to involve 'admin' in the morning as I call it. In this case getting to China. We headed for the private bus station which did the bus tickets and we were told it was going to cost $30; a bit of a blow as we had been told $15 each so in essence double. We headed for the train station as an alternative, which so you understand how frustrating this was, was a long long way away. They said yes tickets would be just over $30 but we couldnt buy them till the ticket window opened in half and hour. We sat down and considered our options. After deliberation we decided that as the border crosssing happened in the middle of the night we would prefer to do it by bus in the day especially as it is a dollar or two cheaper. So we headed back to bus station (now getting on at lunchtime, we were supposed to do other things in the afternoon). At the bus station she wrote the price as $20 on the ticket (but kept saying 30); I asked what that was in dong. she said 300,000 (actually $15). So we paid and ran! So after all that we got them for the price we expected. Oh well, welcome to SE Asia. By the way it is very common for all prices to be quoted in dollars in hotels and for bus tickets and in fact when you pay in dong they round up the exchange rate making it worse for you. After this we headed to Hoan Kiem Lake (above) and visited the temple in the middle and saw the remains of a huge turtle which 'live' in the lake. We also arranged a tour to the Perfume Pagoda for tomorrow.

This tour started very early and we drove with a group of 2 other Brits, a Japanese couple, 4 Europeans and 4 Thais to the Perfume Pagoda harbour. Here we got onto row boats holding 7 people each; first stop was a local pagoda (which to be honest we could have done without) and then an hour rowing later we arrived at the Perfume Pagoda. We had lunch which was yum and included. We then got the cable car up there; it was pretty cold. Now I dont really know how to describe it; its not a pagoda its a cave with some astonishigly beautiful rock formations in it. It was stunning and our photos probably wont give you an idea of the scale. After seeing the Pagoda Janec and I chose to walk back down and we were rowed back to the bus. It was stunning and a great day out but it reminded us both why we are glad we haven't done lots of tours.

The main event of the next day was not buying any large coats and deciding to leave it to China thanks to the happy ' it is fake yes but it $50 is reasonable' 'err no'. (A good move as it would turn out). The evening saw us got to the Water Puppet theatre which was great fun. Janec really liked the orchestra of traditional Vietnamese instruments. The show happens in a pool of water with the puppets on top. They did little skits of traditional stories and we got something to help explain. Brilliant! On leaving we found that Vietnam had won the football and there was hundreds of people out on the streets with flags and flares. It was amazing to watch. The main road was at a standstill with people on mopeds.

Our final full day in Vietnam and we headed for the Ho Chi Minh Mauseleum which was very interesting. They have various complicated rules regarding bags etc. But we saw Ho Chi Minh which was a bit odd but interestinng. In the Mauseleum you are not allowed to talk, stop, or anything. We then headed to the Ho Chi Minh Museum which had some interesting modern art. The Temple of Literature was our next stop. It was so serene and absolutely beautiful in the mass of busy streets that surround it. We then headed for the cinema and watched Harry Potter, which was great!! So our final day in Hanoi was fabulous and that is it SE Asia is done. What a blast it has been. So many places to come back to and so many more things to do. A noisy place with all the horns, people and life. It has also been quite easy to travel around. Pass me my Mandarin dictionary, I think I'll need it. Compared to SE Asia I think China is going to be harder but here we go.

Next stop China ....