Arrived here on Thursday. Obviously absolutely bewildering at first.
The taxi at the airport took a devious route back to the city, which involved bumping along dirt roads some of the time, and doubling back, doing U turns. This was a foretaste of the traffic chaos awaiting the visitor.

The small hotel is in Hang Bac street and is said to be the oldest street in the city, dating back to 13th century. It is wide enough for one car. This does not prevent the motorcyclists parking on the pavements so that pedestrians have to walk in the road. The pavements too are where the street traders sit, selling snacks, drinks, items for sale and generally just hanging out!

Probably I am not giving Hanoi enough time to reveal its charms. Many of the Hanoi people are absolutely charming, but of course they cannot speak English so are unable to give directions if you get lost.

First day in Vietnam, hotel offered a 2 day tour to Ha Long bay by mini-bus. As time was short, we decided to take this and our group was only three people plus very nice young man guide called Twen or Dwan, and the driver.

Go to Ha Long bay if you can, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, but the bus ride there in uncomfortable seats, weaving and dodging the oncoming traffic, makes your hair stand on end. After nearly ending on the floor, decided to make use of the ancient seat belt!

The port is full of wooden boats with figureheads and to get to our boat we had to climb over about three other boats, round the prows and along the sides. The islands in the bay - legend has it - were formed when a mother dragon and her son intervened on behalf of the locals who were being attacked by another army. The dragons deflected the army by breaking up and falling into the bay as islets. The big islets are the mother dragon and the small ones are the son.

There are also tail of the dragon islands.

The weather was perfect, just lightly mistly and the islets are covered in greenery. The water in the shadow of each islet is viridian green, the rest of the huge bay is pale silvery green, and everywhere is dotted the little fishing junks and tiny boats, where the oarsman or woman stand and row with narrow oars.
The night was spent on Cat Ba island which has a fair selection of largish hotels. Our hotel was obviously built to take the rush, when Cat Ba eventually becomes an international resort. It was lovely to have really hot water for a shower (first time in Asia) but the meal was lamentably geared up to Western taste, and did not quite make it!

Second day, back to the mainland and the boat stopped so that we could swim off the boat, in the cloudy green water. So cloudy that I could not see anything even though wearing goggles.

Coming back, at the port, our group was accosted by three French tourists who had been abandoned by their tour party. Asked us if we could give them a lift back to Hanoi from Ha Long city. The bus ride back was just as bumpy and took about four hours. So this aspect of the trip almost cancelled out the peace and tranqulity of the boat ride, but not quite.