Tuesday 18 January Up early, breakfasted on tea, toast and the local delicacy of coconut jam (once was enough we might add), then walked around the corner to meet the Guide at the tourist office. The free walking tour took in twelve of the most famous sights and lasted two and a half hours. We learned , where we were staying, Jonker street, used to be the main port and trading area,with riverside berths. Over the years, a combination of silting and land reclamation meant that the coastline moved three or four kilometres further away. Also, the Dutch houses here are extremely narrow and ridiculously long, due to the taxation laws in Holland during the 15th/16th century when taxes were calculated by the width of the frontage of houses. Therefore, sensibly, people chose to build long ... read more

Monday 17 January Leaving our hotel we entered the fairly busy streets of the world heritage city of Melaka. We decided to leave exploration of the Chinese quarter until evening, so crossed the bridge into Dutch square (aka red square).Architecture is a mix of Dutch and English - it was hard to concentrate on the buildings due to the loud Disco music and overwhelming displays of the 3-wheeled cycles, whose riders ply their trade around the square. Paula's favourite being the 'Frozen' theme. For MYR 2, (30p). It's driver willingly posed for a photograph. We, however, declined to hire him, more suited to Paula's 3yr old granddaughter's we thought. The Dutch buildings are all well-maintained, painted in a garish salmon pink colour, which popular legend claims to have been chosen specifically to hide the staining historically ... read more

6 mar - Thursday Hello again, (briefly). Bangkok Returned to Bangkok for a day to finish shopping and await our Etihad flight home to Larnaca,Cyprus, Via Abu Dhabi. Flight from Hanoi good, we are greeted by humid high 30's temperatures and blue skies. We have booked a budget hotel to refresh and store our luggage and at around £28, it is better than some of the star rated hotels we stayed at in Vietnam. We also are far more tolerant of the street food and hygiene here after our Vietnamese experience. We think to finish off our shopping at the King Power shopping Mall, which boasts duty free status. Unfortunately, prices are three times anywhere else in the City. Decide to hang on to our last few Baht and go back to the Hotel, and catch ... read more

4 mar - Tuesday Mostly today was a travelling Day. From Cat Ba Palace Hotel departing 9am to arriving our wonderful Boutique Hotel in Hanoi at 5pm, nothing much to report. Apart from the fact that we finally got to enjoy a cookery class - how to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls - very enjoyable, Paula appreciated very much, and promised to make thousands on her return to Cyprus...... We have a shopping list to go for this evening, and start to acquaint ourselves of the silk street after finding a fourth floor bar for a quick beer and a couple of photos. We have already met Hanoi twice! Once on arrival in the evening, dark and drizzly for three hours, then again on Sunday morning for two hours in the dark with drizzly rain, so we ... read more

2nd mar - Sunday Arrived back in Hanoi Railway Station to steady rain at about 0600 hrs, and as promised, the Tour guide was at the train steps to whisk us away to our Hotel. Trouble was, as we were straight off to Halong Bay, we only booked our Hotel from Tuesday! Technically, we were homeless. Also, we had left most of our luggage at the Tour office and that was closed. We walked literally round one small block and found our hotel, then explained that we needed to freshen up prior to travelling. They very obligingly let us have a complementary room to shower and change. Afterwards we had an excellent Western style breakfast, which we paid for and left refreshed, to collect our luggage and bus. After waiting outside the closed office for an ... read more