Vietnam finale

I think it came as a bit of a shock to both of us when we arrived in Hanoi. It had been 32-35 degrees everywhere so far and as we arrived into Hanoi the pilot told us it was 12.

Lonely Planet warns of the terrors of the airport cab drivers and touts - none of which transpired and we shared a collective mini van with some locals. With many layers of clothes on we walked around the old city taking in the sites and smells and avoiding being run over by any scooters.

The old city has lots of little streets crammed with shops and stalls and people selling everything on the street corner, it seemed a little bit more traditional than Saigon.

Now with it being 12 degress you would think that bars and restaurants would have some heating, but no they all still had the air con blasting so we spent what would have been a great dinner shivering with our jackets on.

The next day we had planned to go to see the monument for Ho Chi Minh which is a massive mausoleum where the Vietnamese pile in to see his embalmed body. Unfortunately for us their great leader was not having visitors - closed.

We headed off to a temple/religious university that the lonely planet says is a must. The students study religion for 11 years there - we struggled to last 11 minutes before being overtaken with the boredom. Fortunately across the road was a fabulous cafe which was run by a charity under a NZ chef to give street kids opportunites in the restaurant trade. Todd says the flat white was the best he´s had for a long while and the cakes and service were amazing.

On our last night in Vietnam we decided to partake in some of the local´s delicacies for dinner. the road side BBQ. You choose skewers of meat, us not knowing what most of it was then sat down at miniture tables and chairs while it was cooked for us. The beef and corn on the cob was great, the frog was actually really good but the round dumpling things were not so good when we bit in and decided they were probably testicles. Still, you can wash them down with some of the murky green beer.