Blue Pearl Hotel Hanoi

... kept in the mausoleum. With only hand motions and a stern scoul, the lady guard pointed at my arms and ordered me to drop them straight down by my side. It was a very stressful 30 second tour of Ho. After exiting the mausoleum we were given back our camera and allowed to peruse the grounds at our leisure. The area in front of the mausoleum was a massive lawn where ladies were painstakingly weeding the grass one blade at a time by hand, wow.

The mausoleum ...

... for two nights. I've saved a hundred quid by choosing the Standard boat & hotels rather than Superior, so fingers crossed it's OK, but I'd rather save the money for ten days on the beach next week.

I've really enjoyed Hanoi. The weather's been gorgeous; it might be Winter but for me it's been ideal. Very sunny, blue skies, and mostly really warm, but with a freshness in the air ...

... 8221;. So she tells me that’s the cost of the fine and cost for impounding the bike. I ask if I should pay it now and she quietly says, “oh he’s not done yet, watch and see”. She turns to him and slowly starts to reach into her purse as if she knows there’s more to come and then he quietly says something more. She turns to me and winks like, here it is. She then reaches into her purse and pulls out considerably more than 380,000 dong and ...

... of a Fighting Cock"" ??
"" Cock who lost in a Fight and some testicals..( Balls that is !!)
"" Snake-head inside out"" Velly Nice!! Day-Special... yeah right..!
"" Runny nose of Pig with semen......Sailor Special !!
No thanks, we rather eat something we can spell.!!! So after some debate with our " try-to-rip-you-off-waiter we ordered something that looked like spare-ribs...Well as it came, the fat was dripping of the plate. Probably from a "Pig who ...

... nous arrivent dessus comme des vagues folles et frenetiques voulant tester notre capacite de reactivite au...danger. Oui, au danger! Comment appeler autrement ce flot incessnt et zigzaguant en tous sens qui anime les rues de Hanoi de jour et de nuit? Tous y vont de leur klaxon et de leur 'tut-tut'. A croire que le jeu est d'etre le plus inventif dans la stridence du klaxon. Ou.. ou...le plus inventif dans la tenue. Car du bruit ou du look, il se pourrait que le second gagne la ...

... you with questions about school: our school day starts at 8 and ends at 5 with teaching part of the day occurring from 8:30 – 4. We do have duty but not everyday and we get an hour for lunch and can leave the grounds without having to tell anyone. I mentioned the free cappuccino daily if we like and I do, and water coolers are throughout the school for dinking at no cost. If you buy a school lunch it is very cheap (about 75 cents), regarding days off - we get 4 weeks off, one ...

Tw. Vietnam, wow!! There’s so much to say about it I’m not sure where to begin. What I can say, is that to date, it’s probably my second favourite place behind New Zealand and despite having been there for 2 months, it’s definitely somewhere we could go back to and have a whole different adventure to the one we’ve just had. Why’s that Toby? Well it’s everything about it, and it’s not all good I can assure you. It starts off when you ...

... 2, and costs only 25 Yuan (It's around 6.8 CNY/RMB per USD). We took the train (after they x-rayed our bags, which they also do on the subway lines and before getting into the train station) to the end of the line, and switched the subway line (cost 2 CNY regardless of where you go) that went to our hostel. From the station, Dongsi Shitiao, it was about 800 m, or 15 minutes to walk, not too bad really. Check in was pretty easy, and the room is ok. We are in a 10 ...

... but you just get used to it after a while. Incredible we didn't see any accidents, although they are apparently increasing about 10% every year! Pete headed back to the room, but I kept mucking around with the camera before dropping in for about half an hour to the Jazz bar that was raved about in the guidebook. Sat for a while and saw an awesome trumpet player rip it up. Nice to hear some live jazz. We got an early night, for tomorrow was an adventure ahead of us - Halong Bay by ourselves.

3rd April 2009 Hotel Ngoc Bach, Mai Chau, Vietnam Hoa Binh - Mai Chau (72kms) Very balmy Firstly, route information. There's quite a bit of climbing on this route. The first climb is steep (10%) but only about 10 kms. Then there's about 40 kms of flat or undulating, then just when you think you're about ready to arrive you hit a nice big, gradual, climb with a 10km steep drop into Mai Chau itself. Just when you think you can't take the ...