We headed out of Hanoi for a 2 day trip into Northern Vietnam. Our destination was Halong Bay for a tour of the islands and caves and an overnight stay on a Chinese junk boat. Our guide called Long was, as most of the Vietnamese people are, very happy and enthusiastic and got us involved in some very cheesy introductions and applause whilst on the bus. It was great to drive out into the countryside and see the mountains appearing and people at work in the padd...

Hoorah! We are finally out of Beijing and have moved onto Hanoi in Vietnam. The first notable difference is the change in temperature...its back to flip flops and t-shirts after having been cocooned in many layers for the past 6 weeks. It seems that horn tooting motorcycles rule the road here and few people have cars but there is definitely a knack to crossing the road - you just have to step out and start walking slowly to allow the bikes to swerve around you...