Somerset Grand Hanoi

... market. Trading begins as early as 4.00 am, and by sunrise, the waterways are clogged with the sampans of marketeers and customers. Vendors of smaller items hoist a sample of their wares on a bamboo pole. Shoppers come by land and ...

... I was not fully prepared to complete my blog as I would have liked.
Our Guide Vung and Driver Zoung in Sapa could not have done more for us. Mr Tom from Trails of Mountain has done everything within his power to make our stay in Vietnam memorable.
The guides and drivers from Yunnan Travel in china have been exceptional. Especially Sarah ...

... entire group was prepared to explore the cave. We
entered the cave and made our way through a series of obstacles,
crouching at times along the way. We ended up at another opening which
was very scenic and we took pictures. Next we headed to the "dark
cave," where we couldn't see own our hands in front of our faces after
we were all turned off our flashlights. Once the novelty of being blind
wore off, we turned the flashlights back on and made our way back to
Hanoi, Vietnam seasiabound

... 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 ...

... little walk for a bit longer.

On our way out we locked the bathroom (with our bags and passports etc in) and upon returning found out that our key didn't seem to work. Then ensued chaos as one of the hotel guys came up to try and open it with the key, then two tried to open it with a key. After both failed they moved from the key to a lock pick thing (reassuring they had one of those...), and after still failing brought up ...

... We had a great time there. We landed in Hanoi yesterday in a torential downpour that flooded many streets. After the most harrowing cab ride of my life (and yes, I have been the passenger in a car that Murray was driving) we arrived at the Win Hotel. Now this is what I was hoping to find here. Tiny streets crowded with people, bikes and I an sure we have seen and heard over 1 million scooters honking and flying around ...

... enough by the end. Following the performance we headed out for dinner again. Great looking restaurant, lots of atmosphere, favoured by the locals. I ordered bun bo Hue, a traditional dish of beef noodle soup. Imagine my horror when it arrived complete with calf foot protruding from the dish. Quite off putting. Mind you the menu featured some odd dishes - swan, sparrow salad, eel and so on, so the calf foot was not as bad as it could have been. Another full day lies ahead tomorrow.

... eerie there and I said I felt like I was at a Wake for someone. We stood in line and processed in silence as we saw his preserved body. It was very odd but interesting to see how much this man means to the people of Vietnam. After exploreing a very hot unairconditioned Museum of Ho Chi Minh we went to the Ethnology Museum. Vietnam has many different ethnic groups and it was very cool to see displays on all the groups. There was also a special exhibit on ...

... 30pm. The journey, we were told, would take about 40 minutes. However, due to a massive jam leading to the church, it took us about one hour fifteen minutes to reach the place. It was almost midnite by the time we reached there and we only managed to catch the tail of a street procession which was very colourful and rather interesting. It was interesting in that a small statue of Jesus as a child was carried on an altar during the ...

... was a fluffy American affair covered in butter and topped with PERFECTLY ripe mango, which is in my opinion clearly the king of the fruit world ;)

Just as we were leaving we saw a boat full of Buddhist monks in their orange robes gliding across the river. It looked so serene and peaceful and really made an impression on me.



After lunch we jumped into our airport minibus and headed to possibly the smallest ...