The luggage arrived

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I am sure you have all been waiting with bated breath to know whether or not the luggage arrived! Well it did that evening so finally all was well in our world.

Al and I spent the next day wandering around Hanoi on our own, dicing with death when crossing the road. Walked around a couple of lakes, notched up a couple of pagodas, think there is going to be a lot of them here. Walked past a building site which had been fenced off and 5 men had set up shop on the pavement as barbers. Mirrors had been attached to the railings and their customers were in high swivel chairs having their hair snipped, one was being shaved. We visited the prison (known as Hanoi Hilton) used by the French to incarcerate the Vietnamese and then Vietnamese stuck the Americans in there. Walking back passed an electrical shop, a bloke had bought a washing machine, stuck it on the back of his moped, didn't secure it and drove off holding it on with one hand behind him. Another great meal out for a pittance.

Next stop was Halong Bay, high on the list of things to see. Arrived about lunchtime and got taken out to our junk 'Ginger'. Beautiful boat all kitted out in varnished hard woods, cabin was quite luxurious, you could lie in bed and watch the scenery pass by as it chugged along. No sooner had we set off than the rain set in and continued for the next 24 hours, treks to the top of a hill to look at the views and a pagoda, swims in the bay and looking at caves were all declined by myself as I couldn't be arsed with getting soaking wet. Did however go and see a fishing village. They are all extremely poor, some live on their boats, living area is smaller than one of my wardrobes. Others live on what can only be described as floating chalet style garden sheds. Even though it was raining the scenery was still very beautiful, had an etheral quality/quite spooky as everything was shrouded in mist. Food was very good again but think it unlikely that you could get a bad meal here. All the postcards show the weather as being good but am not convinced as Mark and Ellie had bad weather at a different time of year.

Drive back to the airport and saw a bloke on a moped with a pig trussed up lying across the back. Didn't get a picture unfortunately as it was tipping down. On the subject of pictures Al has had a problem downloading them from the camera onto the notebook, something about Windows 7. This has now been fixed and I will work out to do before I send the next one and have attached some. Another flight, only an hour this time to Hue, the old Vietnamese capital and the baggage arrived.

This used to be the old capital where the kings lived. We were met by our guide the next day and walked around the citadel. Some really lovely old buildings and grounds that are being restored with the help of UNESCO. This area saw some heavy fighting during the Vietnam wars and you can see lots of bullet holes.
Needed to pay a trip to the atm, and am now a millionaire, well at least in Vietnamese Dong. There is approx 30 thousand to the £ so I end up with a couple of million at a time. Shame its not £'s. Then we went on a dragon boat up the Perfume river, named for the profusion of apricot blossom that floats on it at this time of year, not a petal in sight! and arrived at another pagoda. Won't bore you more details about those. Off to lunch at a fabulous restaurant where all the dishes were decorated with flowers and birds made from veggies, really clever. Then a couple of tombs. It is very humid here and any buildings made from the local limestone get covered in black mold really quickly so they generally look filthy. Tomorrow we are off to Hoi An via Da Nang for 3 days.

Am writing this retrospectively till I have caught up, so we have moved on

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