Pacific Prince Hotel Hanoi

... the lives of US prisoners in the prison. They basically say, "Sure, they missed their families, but other than that, they had a comfortable life, with every amenity they could have wanted!" The propoganda is thick, so thick you could drown in it. Of course, when describing conditions kept in the prison by the French for Vietnamese prisoners, conditions were positively in humane and torturous. But when the US troops were there ...

... by swimming on the Bay or relax or come to dining bar for International breakfast buffet at around 07:00. The Cruise will continue on taking us around the Bay this morning. The last route on the Bay will be Bai Tu Long Bay and our cruise will stop at the Hong Gai Wharf at around 10:30AM. We will transfer to our awaiting vehicle and drive back to Hanoi. Trip concludes in ...

... key to a lovely room at the back of the hotel despite arriving 8 hours before official check in time. For 20$ a night we had a huge room with TV, wifi, fridge, very hot shower/bath, free internet and breakfast!
We went to sleep at 5am absolutely exhausted.


14th, 15th October and 16th October
We woke at around 10am and went downstairs. They boys smiled at us (despite having been woken up by us five hours ago) and asked if we wanted ...

... afternoon by bus to our base hotel in Hanoi. On the way back, we witnessed a sad accident where a young man on a motorcycle was killed. It perturbed Wendy greatly, who did not look but could hear the comments from the guides. Pierre actually saw the poor man who got hit. A sight he's glad Wendy did not see.

We are now off to the train station and en route to Sapa. We'll update you upon our return. Until then stay safe ! Wendy and Pierre

... for Ho Chih Min (Here, Andrea got too close to the entrance and was whistled away by an armed guard). This walking idea was our plan to burn off our large breakfast, in addition to experiencing the city on foot, but at some point the sticky heat and treacherous traffic got to us. We decided to hire a bicycle rickshaw to take us to lunch at the end of our sightseeing morning. It turns out, this was just a treacherous. Our biker/driver reassured us, as he ...

... the enchanted Hoan Kiem Lake, in which a magical sword rests within the depths of its water, protected by giant tortoises - one of which is encased and embalmed (not as well as HC Minh) in a temple that resides on an island, in the middle of the lake.

After visiting the most well known temple in Hanoi, The Temple of Literature, I decided that the temples here have nothing on those in Japan and Thailand. Though I appreciated the brief serenity ...

... at some game, mahjong I think.

We then headed past the Martyr's Monument (to those who fought for Vietnamese independence), and a massive collection of 'cyclos' (the Vietnamese tuc-tucs) into the winding alleyways of the Old Quarter. We walked round a local market full of fresh food and seafood. Just like you imagine really - plenty of raw meat and fish everywhere, most still or half-alive, with motorbikes weaving there way ...

We woke up and showered before heading down our five flights to the reception. We asked the girl at the front desk to book our Halong Bay tour for $90 USD each. We also asked her to call Hidden Hanoi and find out where they are located and if we can take a cooking class today. It is $40 USD each, so we asked her to reserve a spot for us. We also asked her to book the train from Hanoi to Nanning, China for the evening of the 12th. The train is going to cost 1.4 ...

... their motorbikes as soon as they saw that the lady meant business. Sigh....violence! The show ended there and traffic resumed. Later, a roar of the sound of motorbikes made us watched in awe and some fear as the young people raced in the streets on their motorbikes carrying flags, honking, yelling jubilantly because Vietnam managed to win in their football match against Singapore. Most other vehicles stopped where they were when these ...