So, that hotel we are staying in is lovely! (fresh fruit baskets everyday, a room that is cleaned to perfection, complementary water and lovely staff) It ia in a side street in Hanoi so we can easily walk to everything and it's nice and quiet when we sleep.
Yesterday we ventured into Hanoi to explore a bit and had a lovely dinner (I had nachos and Sarah was more traditional with soup and spring rolls!)

This morning we went down to our complementary breakfast which was amazing, fresh food cooked in the same room and you can eat as much as you want!! :) Obviously we both tried to eat the hotel into administration but failed miserably. After breakfast we took a rickshaw to an older part of Hanoi and visited the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, his body was perfectly preserved and it looked just as if he were sleeping. After this we went around the slightly strange Ho Chi Minh museum which didn't seem to tell us an awfully large amount of history but did have random giant sized pieces of fruit on a giant table....go figure. These two events were topped off by seeing the beautiful one pillar pagoda (small but very beautiful - pics to follow)

Keeping up with our cultural start we ventured out to the temple of literature which was beautiful and is home to the many tortoises holding the names of the hard working students. Sarah made a lovely new friend who shall be known as stalker boy and who wanted to practice his english!!?? After several attempts (and practically running) we did manage to escape! After all of this we took the short walk to the vietnam national fine arts museum which had everything from silk paintings and portraits to giant sculptures and bronzes.

Lunch was at K.O.T.O (know one teach one) a restaurant which is run by street children who are fully trained by the foundation. Thirty kids are given 24 months in house training, medicals, rent and an allowance and are then helped in the search for a job with a 100% success rate. The food was amazing and I would definitely recommend it to anyone!

This afternoon I didn't achieve an awful lot which Sarah got a very pretty pedicure and then we tried to plan some more of our trip.

Dinner was at 69 bar restaurant and not only did we eat traditional food but we ate the whole thing with chopsticks :) (I'm very proud of myself!)

That's all for now. xxxx