Thursday 15th April - Hanoi - Breakfast included in our hotel price. There was no choice - we were just presented with a fried egg and 2 pieces of toast and tea was served in a half pint glass. No fruit was available we were told because it was raining! We withdrew 6.5 million from the ATM today - but don't worry it was Vietnamese Dongs not US Dollars or UK pounds! Visited the war muesum and saw the water puppet show which is unique to Vietnam. The very colourful bird, dragon and people figurines dancing round in the water controlled by people behind the scenes standing in waist-high water, was excellent. Traffic in Hanoi is the closest we've come to India - beeping horns and thousands of motorbikes criss-crossing at junctions like an army motorcycle display team! It rained all morning and was the first time the whole trip we've had to use our raincoats! Took a trip on a cyclo-rickshaw (where a man pedals you around) - he earned his money with 20 plus stones worth of Russell to push around!

Friday 16th April - Hanoi to Halong Bay(Raining again!) - Start of our 3 day trip . Boarded coach with 14 others to Halong Bay - where the bay is full of hundreds of individual limestone rocks protruding from the water. Had trip round the bay on a lovely boat to some wonderful 'Surprising Caves' and dinner and stayed the night on the boat in a quaint little cabin. Met George and Felicity from London and had a few beers.

Saturday 17th April - Awoke to more rain but it didn't stop us from walking 3 miles with our guide to a local village on La Nha(??) island. But the rain did stop us from walking up the mountain due to it being very slippy. No rain after lunch so we were able to go kayaking - the kayaks were inflatable ones and we all seemed to have great difficultly in controlling them resulting in us all swapping pair and combinations many times! We winded up on a beach where we had a swim and there were loads of starfish in the sand under the water. The Australian girls in our group were helping Derek with his treading water skills - still to be mastered!
Had an evening meal in our hotel with the rest of the group
The group comprised of -
Katrina and Gill - sisters from Tamworth, Australia
Karen,Christine and Suzie from Sydney
Karsten and Merete from Denmark
and Laurence and her son Gabrielle from Paris

La Nha the place we are staying tonight seems to be Vietnam's answer to Blackpool - lights all along the harbour seafront - with a few rough looking locals chucking stones around and shouting loudly after an evening of drinking! Saturday night seems normal again somehow!