Cold shower to start the day as forgot to turn hot water switch on! A little milder today as sun breaking through. Yay! Breaky of Pho Ga ( chicken noodle soup which all the Vietnamese eat or Pho Bo - pronounced Fur) or French Toast and Toasties. Checked out would have loved to have stayed longer at Sapa Rooms as really great spot. Today so different to yesterday as rain finally stopped. Awesome views from our room. Cuong came to get us at 8.30am and we headed o...

Overnight train arrived at Lai ca at 6am. Slept ok but quite bumpy. Walked across train tracks in the dark to get to station. Very cold about 1 degree Celsius and raining. Cuong had driver organized to pick us up. About an hours drive to Sapa winding road all the way up the mountain. Still dark and also raining so never saw much. Went to wrong hotel first then to the Sapa Rooms where we were booked in. Owned by an ex pat this was a wonderful spot to be. Warm and...

Awoke early in the hopes of seeing a sunrise but still dark at 5.30am. About 6.15am started to get light but no sunrise as too much cloud and mist. Very cold too as quite a strong breeze. Breaky which wasn't overly great. Then Grandy, Poppy and Rob stayed on boat while others went on little boat to an island where they climbed to the top to have a view of Ha Long Bay. Quite hard work to get to top of mountain. When they arrived back we had to vacate cabins at 9....

Up early for breaky then picked up for our trip to Ha Long Bay. Drizzled most of the way down (3 1/2 hours) so the beautiful limestone cliffs very misty and ethereal. Our ' vietnamese junk' was the smaller 10 cabin Phoenix Cruiser'. Beautiful boat , cabins gorgeous and lovely and clean. Cannot even hear the motors as you cruise along. 15 of us all up. 6 French and 3 Californians and the 7 of us. Set sail at about 1 pm eating beautiful seafood lunch in the dining ...

Up early to head to Hanoi. Our painting we were having done arrived by motorbike at 7am. Amazing copy of painting we had seen at Nha Trang. Huge 1.2m x 1.2m canvas. Don't think there is anything these guys cannot do - and quickly. Then Sue arrived with Kobe's bag left at their place- surprise! Another tearful farewell and she was off to school. Have had an amazing time with them all !! Headed off to airport at 8am for flight to Hanoi. Short flight - about 1 hou...