Day 4: I got up late as I could not sleep with the water leaking in the bathroom at night. After breakfast I headed off to the Temple of Peace, taking bus 814, at the corner of my hotel. The temple is magnificent with a vast park, I took subway back to the hotel and headed straight to the airport by taxi for my flight to Hanoi. The taxi was on meter and it cost me 110 yaun with the tip. I had a brilliant time in Beijing and met some wonderful people, I am glad that I did this holiday Independently. It was much more fun and exciting, the best thing is that I could do it at my pace.

At Beijing Airport, the Vietnam airlines do check to see if you have the visa approval letter. This you can get either through your hotel or agent which cost about $14 and it takes about 2 weeks by email. I got mine with Golden Sun hotel and I brought printed copy of the visa approval.The Vietnam airline was delayed about an hour but the vegetarian food on the flight was excellent, I do enjoy Vietnamese cuisine.

I arrived at Hanoi airport in the evening and I was pleased I had all the visa documents ready. I had downloaded the visa on arrival form, filled it and attached my passport picture. I also kept $25 handy for the visas with the printed visas approval form. The whole process took 5-10 minutes. 
 
 
        Taxis in Hanoi : Scams 
 

There have been reports of scams at Hanoi airport so I booked the Taxi with the hotel, the driver from the Golden Sun hotel was waiting for me and he had brought me a much, needed bottle of cold water for me as the temperatures In Hanoi were higher then in Beijing. The drive from the airport to Hanoi old quarters is very interesting and big eye opener, the car was four seater and very comfortable.The Golden Sun was fully booked so they put me into the Golden sun legend, I had a good view of the street bustling with people from my room balcony.