Day 24 – Bangkok – Hanoi
We had a flight booked today from Bangkok to Hanoi in Vietnam. It was stressful as the transport took a long time to come and we got to the airport with about 90 minutes to spare which we thought was enough time. Unfortunately the queue took ages as a lot of people hadn’t got a visa for Vietnam (which you don’t need from the UK (and possibly Europe) if you are staying for 15 days or less) however you have to prove you are leaving ie have an outward plane ticket booked or bus or train journey which isn’t communicated anywhere so a lot of people weren’t allowed to check in before they booked something. This held up the queue a lot! Luckily for us, Martin & Cat had told us about this before we set off so we were prepared, however it didn’t stop us having to run through the airport after check in as they were calling for final boarding! We made the flight.. just!
We arrived in Hanoi and the airport had arranged a pick up for us. We checked in and the hotel receptionist sat down with us and went through all the things we should do in Hanoi. The Vietnamese are such lovely people! We decided to go for a walk around where we were staying and had a good meal at Hanoi Garden which was near to our hotel.

Day 25 – Hanoi
We went for a walk around the town this morning and started by walking to the lake. It was really humid and Dan suffered a bit with the heat! We found beer corner, which meant we’d also planned our evening entertainment! We then went to see the Ho Chi Min mausoleum before going to see the train. Now you might think a train is not that exciting, however it is the street that the train goes down which is really cool! It is basically a really small narrow street where people live that has a train come down twice a day. A few of the local people have set up a couple of bars and shops on the street for the tourists. We sat down and waited about 20-30 minutes for the train. Just before it approached the people took all the seats away and made us stand with our backs to the wall as the train gets that close! It was great to see! 
In the evening we went to beer corner which is pretty much as it sounds; a few pubs on a corner! They had the traditional small chairs / seats and we had a drink whilst watching Vietnam vs Phillipenes in the Asian cup. The Vietnamese are football crazy and most bars and shops had put TVs outside so everyone could watch the football whilst dressed in the Vietnamese colours. It was a great atmosphere as there were gasps and cheers when Vietnam had the ball and when Vietnam scored the entire street went crazy! It was brilliant to see!

Day 26 – 3rd December – Halong Bay
We were picked up early for our Halong Bay Cruise. We got into our ‘limousine’ and drove for about three hours until we arrived at the ferry terminal. We had been given a free upgrade onto Bhaya premium cruise so there were only only 8 people on our two night / 3 day cruise. We got on our boat and set off cruising. Chris the guide introduced himself and explained what we would be doing for the duration of our stay onboard. We met the other three couples; two American and one Australian.
We had a huge lunch and then let lunch settle whilst taking in the amazing views of Halong bay on the sun deck. Our first stop was the floating village where we boarded kayaks and paddled around.  It was interesting to see the village and how people lived on the water and fished for a living. After this we went back to the boat and got ready for our evening entertainment – a spring roll making competition.  Before this we sat on deck watching the sun go down having a couple of happy hour cocktails! The competition then began and we were put into two teams; two opposing teams! Dan won the round for his team and was then in the final against the winner of the other team. Unfortunately it wasn’t Liz as she came last in the other group!  Dan lost the final! We then had some of the spring rolls along with lots of other dishes for dinner. After dinner we attempted squid fishing off the back of the boat. The success was similar to that of Liz’s spring roll making skills and hence we didn’t catch any squid!

Day 27 – 4th December – Halong Bay
Today we got up early ready for sunrise tai chi on the sun deck. Neither of us had done this before and it was good to do. After breakfast we started on the activities for the day and the first stop was a cave visit. After this we went to a pearl farm to see how the pearls were farmed and to buy some if we wanted. Halong Bay is a big producer of pearls and there were lots of different ones to chose from and see.
After this we went back to the boat and had lunch which again was lovely and huge! After our lunch had settled we took the kayaks to a private beach and spent a couple of hours swimming in the sea, kayaking and chilling on the sand.
Our evening started again with happy hour on the sun deck watching the sun set.

Day 27 – 5th December Halong Bay – Hanoi – Dong Hoi
We sailed back to Halong Bay terminal and spent most of the morning until we arrived back on the sun deck. We got our connection back to Hanoi and left the bags in hotel where we stayed before getting the Halong Bay Cruise. We had quite a lot of time to kill today as we were getting the overnight train and that didn’t leave until approx 10:30pm. We found a rooftop bar and spent the afternoon planning some more of our upcoming destinations and booking travel arrangements and accommodation with a couple of beers!
After dinner we went to the train station ready for our overnight sleeper train to Dong Hoi. It was actually pretty good! We had a cabin of four and there was only one other adult in it with their grandchild. We actually managed to sleep for a lot of the way!