What a contrast! From the hot, dry, friendly, cheap - and let's face it - rather agricultural Central Highlands to an international airport and then rush hour in a bustling, modern, international city with more cars than we have seen since leaving the UK - and even hotter. Here are a few pictures we have taken to illustrate the scene and to also give you an idea of the rich mixture of people and things that get transported on two (or three) wheels in Vietnam.

And then we arrived at our hotel and the children jumped up and down with delight! Jackie had booked us in to the Grand Suite of the swankiest hotel in Vietnam - The Grand.

So the next few hours were spent bouncing on beds, looking out of the windows, turning on the TVs, marvelling at the 'smellies', locking and unlocking the doors,fiddling with the switches -and then going for a swim in the pool.

Then we went out for a pizza (special request from Dad who had the tummies and wanted something stabilising).

Today we swam a lot, visited the huge market, ate in a couple of westernised restaurants (we spent more on some pastries and a couple of trendy smoothies than we would have spent on 2 decent family meals in the Highlands - all of 7.50 GBP!) and then swam some more.

D went to the War Museum,a real eye-opener. (Did you know that the American War lasted 19 yrs and during that time the US dropped 5 million tonnes of bombs on Vietnam. Total casualties were over 2 million and about 75% of the Mangrove areas were totally destroyed and many Vietnamese were maimed or disabled for life because of Agent Orange? Tragic.)

They used this french guillotine right up until 1960!

Tomorrow is an exciting and sad day, as we leave for home.Sad to be finishing a fantastic adventure which we will all remember for a very long time. Sad to be leaving a country which we have begun to get to know and love. But excited to be heading home - in spite of the 24 hr flight!

Here's to the next trip!

Nearly back inthe Western World remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Mum- we are all back safe and sound. You can sit back and read this without worrying that I have scraped your grandchildren across the Vietnamese tarmac.

Our 3 motorcyles with drivers collected us. Tam, the guide who speaks English and Billy Brown and Billy Blue- nick names provided by the girls for their drivers.

Within 10 minutes, whilst we were still amongst the busy city traffic, Billy Brown who was carrying the girls had a puncture and we were separated. My worst nightmare had come true. I was never going to see Emma and Olivia again as they had been sold as beautiful english girls to the Vietnamese Underworld! Not so...... Billy Brown quickly ushered them off the road and up into the shade, calling Billy Blue on his mobile who whizzed back to collect them.

We waited near a coffee warehouse- here are Olivia and Matt (in crash helmets - well if you can call Olivia's plastic 'Bob the Builder' hat a helmet?) - with a mound of coffee beans.

We watched the passing traffic but what amused us most were the electricity meter readers. They arrived on their moped with a large bamboo cane to which was tied a magnifying glass!!

Puncture repaired we set off again, stopping at a roadside cafe for a real Vietnamese coffee. It is served in small glasses into which has been poured 1 cm of condensed milk. The little aluminium can on top of the glass contains strong ground coffee which drips slowly into the glass. The glass is kept warm by keeping it in a bowl of hot water. It is always served with a pot of weak green tea. It might sound disgusting but it is truly delicious. It is warm and sweet and velvety and almost like 'Green and Blacks Cocoa'

Tam introduced us to another local speciality- sugar cane drink. This lady is crushing sticks of sugar cane through a mangle. She then mangles a sort of cross between an orange and a lime and collects the juice and serves it with ice. Its a bit tricky as we are trying not to drink the ice but you can't drink this warm so we throw caution to the wind and drink it down. Its delicious and so far no-one has been ill.

The road was dusty and we were getting dirtier and dirtier but all along the road were groups of children waving to us and shouting out "hello!". Emma can reduce a group of teenage boys to a giggling gibbering mass simply by raising her hand and smiling at them. There are very few westerners here and no other families. In the last 4 days we have seen fewer than 10 other 'foreigners' as we are called. So it is not surprising we stand out like sore thumbs.

We stopped to watch some H'Mong people picking the harvested rice off the fields into large flat baskets which they then sort of shake to sieve out the rice. Back breaking work but they looked so calm and serene and gentle. Emma commented to me how together the family looked, all squatting together, quietly and slowly working together, with smiles on their faces. Its not right to romanticise their poverty but it has certainly made us all think about what we have at home and what in fact we really need and don't need.

Onwards to the Jun Village. This is a village of H'Mong people still living a traditional lifestyle. They live in longhouses which are woven houses on stilts. The doors and windows slide- there are no hinges. The woven walls and stilts enable air to circulate freely. The animals wander freely around and live under the houses. There were Vietnamese pot belly pigs everywhere.

We slept overnight in the tourist longhouse. Very simply 8 mattresses on the floor - 5 for us and 3 for the drivers. The local villagers seem to carry on their lives more or less oblivious to us and we hoped that somehow this 'ecotourism' we had signed up to helps preserve their lifestyle.

It was a noisy night with the pigs, dogs, buffalo and chickens all roaming around and the villagers rising at dawn to start work. We travelled by beautiful dug out canoe across the lake the next morning before we headed north to Yok Don National Park to find some elephants.

Everywhere we go in Vietnam we are met with kindness and people sharing things with us. I was waiting for David opposite a motorcyle repair shop and the chap came across the road to offer us a durian. I think we know this as ugly fruit. I knew this was a strange fruit as the guide book says it stinks like a cross between pigs dung, turpentine and smelly socks. It looks a bit odd inside as well. The children are great now at this sort of thing and they manage not to turn up their nose and retreat behind us. So squatting on the floor with a group of Vietnamese men (we can all squat with consummate ease now apart from David who falls over backwards) we eat this rather strange thing.

The countryside round here is not as lush and green as up in the north. We are at the end of the dry season. There are two seasons here in the south. Either hot and dry or hot and wet. Most of the fruit around here seems to ripen at the end of the wet season around November/December time. Also, the land has suffered terrible deforestation as a result of the napalm used by the Americans in the war.

At Yok Don we meet our two female elephants and clamber on.

We set off on these beautiful gentle creatures across the Serepok River into the forest. It was very hot and incredibly uncomfortable. However it was not the tourist trap I thought it might have been. We plodded through the forest, not using any tracks.

Matt's elephant driver having to use a machete to cut the overhanging branches out of our way. We saw no other people. Unfortunately we saw no other animals either. Wild elephants and monkeys live in the forest but they move further into the forest during the dry season. The highlight of the afternoon however, was being on the elephant as the river got so deep, it was actually swimming. Our feet were virtually dipping in the river as these massive animals were swimming!

We were all quite tired by now. It's much more tiring sitting on the back of a motorbike but its a fantastic way of traveling. We had to be careful of the other traffic on the road with us!!!!

But- fresh fried bananas (one of the most unusual Birthday teas ever for David) kept us going back to BMT!

Tomorrow we head down to Ho Chi Minh City. I am not sure we are really looking forward to returning to a more cosmopolitan environment.

3 days, 3 motorbikes, 2 elephants and 5 numb bums remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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March 31st - Hoi An ('It's a Man's World')

We had promised ourselves that we would have a serious look at the fabulous market before leaving the lovely Hoi An - so we all got up early and immersed ourselves in all the noise and the hustle and bustle again - this time with the whole family.

They say it's a man's world - and in Vietnam it certainly appears to be. The men get the good jobs and the women end up with the **** ones (sound familiar?!). Hoi An market is a good illustration of this. All women working. Buying, selling, cooking, jostling for the best fresh fish off the boats, chopping up their goods for sale, cooking for guests - a cacophony of sound.

Amidst all of this, Olivia stepped in a pool of fish 'yuck' and immediately an old lady jumped up and swilled a bucket of fresh water over her leg.

We bought some nik naks and persuaded the kids to join us in eating some authentic street food - Cau Lau and Bah Khai (noodles and crepe pancakes - both local specialities - delicious!

Then after breakfast, a fond farewell to Hoi An and a 9 hr train journey through countryside changing from rice fields in mid-growth to rice fields that were being harvested. Some beautiful scenery which we wouldn't have been able to see if we had flown from Da Nang in the north to Nha Trang further south.

This was followed by a seamless transfer onto a minibus and a mad 2 hr trip on a road which eventually turned into a bumpy track and just petered out and ended up at a sandy wharf from where we took a 20 minute boat trip to Whale Island, our tropical paradise.

It was very exciting arriving in the dark and being ushered to our bamboo beach hut in the middle of the night! Jackie thought that our non-english-speaking escorts were kidnapping us - but we survived.

Whale Island - April 1st to 4th

Swept aside our mosquito nets and opened the door of our new home to a bright blue sky, colourful and lush tropical shrubbery and palm lined beach - idyllic postcard tropical paradise.

After a delicious waitress-served breakfast, we took to the water with snorkelling kit - the children at first clinging to us as we swam nervously in crystal-clear water over coral, seeing miriads of tiny fish, a few larger ones and some huge blue starfish. The kids were freaked out by a big fat snake thing they spotted resting on the sea bed and we were slightly worried about some tiny jellyfish which gave nettle-like stings. We did see some real live clown fish though (AKA Nemo) Very very very hot in the afternoon, so we laid low, but were out in the sea again from 3.30 onwards, the kids getting used to the sea urchins etc.

It never ceases to amaze us how flexible the children are to change. They have really got the hang of sleeping anywhere, long journeys, eating strange things and putting up with the inevitable 'boring bits' as we have to spend a bit of time planning ahead or buying tickets etc.

We spent most of out time here on the water, either diving of the snorkelling boat into the clearest, bluest and warmest water we have ever seen, or kayaking to a secluded beach.

D and I introduced the children to the joys of skinny dipping but no pictures to accompany that!

Great excitement when David stepped on a sea urchin. Their spikes break off in the skin and are acutely painful for 10 mins or so. David says about 7/10 for pain! The treatment is to immerse the part in vinegar as this dissolves the spike. (Laura- sorry, cannot make it any more exciting
as it is not a lethal poison)

We are being spoiled here. Fantastic service, delicious food, massage on the beach...

Matthew was particularly fond of the stuffed squid which he spent most of the meal 'unstuffing' to get at the meat inside. The waitresses wander along the beach at 5.00pm with plates of banana cakes for the 'bebes' .

Last night on the Island and we had a visitor in our cabin - the geckos are quite friendly but this was quite a large one. Olivia saw a mini scorpion on her mosquito net - or so she says!. Fortunately we all survived the night and set off the next morning for our next leg of the journey- 'The Central Highlands'.

April 4th Nha Trang to Buon Ma Thout

This country is quite astonishing. On the face of it we had quite a complicated day ahead of us with a boat trip to a minibus taxi to a bus station for a 4 hour journey followed by another taxi to our new hotel. We are never really sure when we phone whether they have heard or understood us. Everything is done by hand with pen on paper, nothing is done by computer, there are no forms to fill in and no pre-payment has ever been asked for. Yet, everything goes like clockwork. We make all the connections and after a very interesting bus journey we arrive at our destination only half an hour late!

We had thought we were travelling by air conditioned tourist bus up to Buon Ma Thout (this town is right up in the central highlands, quite close to the Cambodian Border) but somehow we ended up on a local bus. It was old and pink! The speed limit here is unbearable slow (80kmph) and is strictly adhered to by everyone. Our bus didn't seem to have any air conditioning so we had the main door wide open all the way with the conductor sort of hanging out. If we slowed down, somebody would jump on with a basket of stuff-usually wrapped in banana leaves and try to sell it us.

She would then jump off when we next slowed again. People kept piling on, old ladies clambered over seats to get a seat at the front and then would slip off their shoes and squat the rest of the 3 or 4 hours. The children commented that they couldn't see Grandma doing that!

There's virtually no other 4 wheeled traffic on the road apart from the odd bus and a few lorries carrying sugar cane down from the hills as this picture through the front window shows.

We stopped once and everyone jumped off and bought bags of hot boiled sweetcorn from the roadside - a bit like the Watford Gap of Vietnam. We tried some but it was a bit soggy and chewy. All the rubbish gets chucked straight out of the window-plastic bags included.

We arrived hot and dusty in BMT - off exploring minority villages tomorrow and back here on the 6th.

Hoi An to the Central Highlands (via a Tropical Paradise) remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We spent the afternoon trying on funny hats in the market - and finally succumbing to the ultimate tourist cliche of buying a conical hat.

Once again the highlight of the day was the interaction with the Vietnamese themselves. We had a lovely lunch overlooking the river and one by one each of the waitresses came upstairs, collected a bundle of cushions and lay down in the middle of the restaurant and fell aleep!! David and I would have liked to have done the same but no chance!

They were all admiring the childrens pale skin and told me that when they are pregnant, they drink lots of coconut milk to try and have a pale skin baby.

We are now trying to work out what the Vietnamese tooth fairy would consider a fair exchange rate as Matts tooth has just fallen out. The lady over the road tried to tell me something about putting the tooth on the roof- but I am not sure I qute understood her! David's up there now and I am a bit worried about him as it is dark and we are in a 4-storey building

Funny Heads and Hats in Hoi An remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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(Lots more pics of your daughter this time, as requested, John and Sue)

Yesterday we got up early to avoid the heat and set off on our bikes to Cua Dai Beach about 3 miles away. This is where all the European sun-worshippers go - a strip of white, palm-fringed beach stretching as far as the eye can see. 'Banana boats' chugged slowly by and a man tried (and failed) to singlehandedly catch some fish only yards from the beach. We messed around here for a while and then cycled back for breakfast.

We stopped on the way to drink from a fresh coconut...

Today Matt, Jackie and David all got up early (the girls didn't fancy it!) and went to the market. Fantastic. Suddenly us tourists played second fiddle for a change. Women pushed past us to get the best fish and shellfish coming off the boat, vegetables were arriving from the fields - people were huddled around their pots and having breakfast - it was an amazing hubub!

Matt was intrigued by the small shark on one of the stands and in awe of the huge knives for sale (and in use). Health and Safety is certainly not an issue here. We also found out why so many of the old women we have seen have disgusting black teeth - they chew beetle juice, with a bit of banana leaf and some clam shell paste - all for sale at one of the stalls in the market, but we declined to try it!

Laura, I tried to lose Jackie to make this blog a bit more exciting but she managed to find her way back to the hotel!

We stopped at a market stall and sampled some delicious 'Banh Khoai' (egg and rice flour crepes stuffed with shrimp, pork and beansprouts - a local speciality) straight from the the frying pan. Even Matt liked it.

Later this morning we went to our Vietnamese Master Chef class - just the five of us in a waterfront restaurant, cooking a classic Hoi An three course meal of Hoi An Spring Rolls, Sweet and Sour Fried Wanton, Barbequed Fish in Banana leaves and Stir- Fried Squid.

We all did everything - from cutting up the vegetables to slicing open the fresh Mackerel and stuffing it. Matt and Livvy had to bash up garlic, lemon grass and ginger in a pestle and mortar on the floor and Emma had to squeeze Kumquats. It was a great hands- on experience preparing and cooking it.

Then we ate it all in the front of the restaurant, overlooking the river. Olivia said it was the best meal she has ever tasted - and everyone had some squid! We are at last ALL starting to eat Vietnamese.

Then after a busy afternoon doing absolutely nothing, we popped out for a pre dinner drink!

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Then back home for a late breakfast and a swim in the Hotel pool (good move to get a hotel with a pool, it keeps the kids occupied for hours!).

Emma in heaven when the three 'girls' went for a pedicure at a local Nail Bar - a stark contrast to this morning.

On our 'contrast' theme which is constantly popping up during our travels, here is a photo of the view behind Jackie as she sits at the pool...

...and here is the view in front of Jackie as David orders a book off Amazon for Matthew to be delivered to Whale Island, our next stop, 12 hrs south of here.

Hoi An: Rural and Urban remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So I obediently set off on a pushbike borrowed from the Guest House where we were staying. In Great Bedwyn, I would do the same but pop to the village shop or to Waitrose. In Vietnam, things are a bit different.

6am. Down the lane on my yellow pushbike (with an attractive basket on the front). Most of the town already seems awake (many are up at 5 here). Past the old lady on the side of the road who had already put on breakfast for the family (there was a pot on the boil for the rice or noodles and she was cutting up some fresh herbs and vegetables).

Past the Charles Bronson lookalike (who always seems to be there, day or night doing very little, just sitting there, watching the world go by) and straight into the stream of traffic which was already starting to build.

90% of traffic in Vietnam is on 2 wheels and it is amazing how no one seems to get hurt, because when it is busy, the whole road is filled with bikes or motorbikes and you just get swept along. But what is really amazing is the junctions. Because no one is travelling particularly fast, and there are no particular rules like there are in England, everyone is alert, so if you make to turn across oncoming traffic, as long as you are consistent in your movements, the oncoming traffic moves around you like a river.

Over the bridge over the Perfume River; Find the big market, but too early. Lots of activity but no one set up yet. Spotted a few bags of green mangoes but no bananas.

Decide to look in the old part of town, near the Citadel. The great thing about cycling is that you don't get pestered by anyone trying to sell you a ride on a Cyclo or something to eat or something to visit.

Down numerous little streets, past schoolkids heading for school, people heading for work, cyclos laden down with fresh produce being taken to the markets or with building materials or household goods (the ubiquitous Cyclo is not just used to carry tourists, it is used instead of a small van in Vietnam - I have even seen a large heavy mahogany dresser being transported by a Cyclo!)

Lots of people having breakfast, families sitting on tiny plastic chairs or boxes (or just crouching) and lots of people selling breakfast from in front of their houses. Breakfast comprises noodle soup and bread and vegetables, mostly, and some juice or tea or coffee. (There seems to be lots of hanging around in Vietnam too!).

Even the school children eat their breakfast by the side of the road - many outside their schools, where food stations are already set up and groups of kids are already tucking in.

I stop outside a house where a woman has put down her baskets of fruit a) for a rest and b) to sell.

She has ripe mangoes, which is great, because the only mangoes we seem to have found up to now have been hard and green. I buy 3 and rather embarrassingly barter her down from 30p to 20p (bartering is a way of life in Vietnam - they seem to respect you for it, but sometimes it seems a bit pointless).

Then further down the road the landscape opens out into a water-filled area, where women are already at work in their little banana-shaped boats, cutting what looks like watercress. It is a beautiful, serene scene (they probably rose before 5am and have done half a day's work already and will earn the equivalent of about 2 GBP for a long, hard day).

I cycle on. No bananas yet and it's 6.30 already.

Then I spot a lady with a little stall outside her house and she has some little baguettes, so I stop and haggle with her - I buy 3 for 20p.

Time is running out so I turn back. The traffic is really building now, so I get swept along as I move from small tracks to bigger roads - by the time I get to the main bridge, there must be 10 bikes abreast on my side of the road.

Still no bananas.

7am Back to the Guest House. Get directions to a "small local market". Get permission from the missus to have one last try. Sprint round to the small market selling fresh fruit and veg but still no bananas.

Back to base with conclusion that there are no ripe bananas in Hue today for some obscure reason.

Then, after breakfast, as we are leaving to catch the bus, our landlady's brother (or cousin or uncle?) says he'll get some for us for 10,000 Dong (about 30p) and scoots off on his little Honda motorbike.

He arrives back 5 mins later, grinning - and produces a hand of delicious ripe bananas (about 15 of them)

Mission accomplished. Simple really.

There must be a moral to this story, but I enjoyed the trip and the mangoes and bread were delicious!

"Just pop out and get some bananas, would you?" remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We didn't really like Hue very much. It was essentially flattened in the war apart from the Citadel. The rest was rebuilt in the 60's and it feels a bit like a Milton keynes! Also I think the heat really hit us and it has taken a couple of days to adjust.

Everywhere you turn in Hue someone is hot on your heels trying to get you to go on a cyclo. They are like bees round a honey pot. Emma has got a very cross vietnamese 'NO' off pat now and seems to be able to frighten them off!

We arrived in Hoi An at lunch time today (34'c) and found a nice hotel with a pool where the chldren have spent most of the day.

Hoi An is completely different to both Hue and Hanoi. The guide books say its 'living history' and I guess you can imagine an old port in times gone by. Its another world heritage site. Crumpled old fading buildings strung along the coast. Its full of tourists and silk shops and I have promised to take the girls shopping. Its much smaller and quieter and cleaner than Hanoi!

David has finally plucked up courage to try the dog kebabs!! while Matt is living on banana juice. The fruit juice drinks here are amazing and only 30p a glass for fresh pineaple, banana or mango.

Some factoids I have found interesting:

The vietnamese go out of their way to avoid the sun - they love pale skin so they wear these face masks (also against pollution) and even in this heat they wear long polyester gloves to cover their arms.

They are only allowed to have 2 children - hence the constant comments I get:'3 children - 2 girl, 1 boy , very lucky'

The high school uniform are these long white trouser/dress things.

They wear white and have white flowers for funerals and red flowers for weddings.

The average national wage is GBP 500 yet they have to pay to send their children to school!

Open heart surgery at Hue Hospital would cost you GBP 700!!!

When they die they can bury their dead anywhere!!There are tombs all over the fields!!!

$5, 1 Hour, Very cheap, Where you from? Manchester United? remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So after breakfast on the balcony, we took a minibus and guide to them, stopping on the way to take in a bit of rural Vietnam (buffalo crossing the busy highway, trying to work out how they extract rubber from the trees and watching people working in the rice fields) and have an interesting lunch by the sea on the way.

It turned out to be rather further than we had been led to believe, so the journey itself took about 6 hrs there and back.

We saw the military cemetery where over 10,000 Vietnamese soldiers were buried during the 19 year war (another 5000 odd died clearing up the unexploded bombs afterwards).

The tunnels themselves were the highlight of the day. Built on three levels through the earth there are 4kms of them and it took just 20 months to build them. 400 North Vietnamese lived down there, whilst the war raged. 19 babies were born down there during the period!

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We queued for about an hour (very strict security etc) to see the great man (who has been dead for nearly 40 years now and had gone a bit yellow).

Then on to a very traditional market with our guide called "UK". Incredible array of fresh fruits and vegetables, live fish and shellfish (including bowls of live eels and crabs).

Saw Vietnamese speciality which is grilled dog - none of us have plucked up enough courage to eat even the heavily disguised dog kebabs yet!

Learned a huge amount about Vietnam from "UK", including the fact that the Vietnamese people are heavily penalised if they have more than 2 children - hence their interest in our three. Also learned that the loud radio that is played all over the city every morning at 5am is the News! Funny how you learn to sleep through it.

Long day, but said our goodbyes to our friends at the hotel

and then caught the night train to Hue at 11pm which was quite an experience - nearly got ripped off by someone masquerading as a guard, then found our cabin for the night - 4 beds. But we managed and all went pretty well on the 10 hr journey south.

Awoke to rural scenery and a 15 degree hike in temperature - much more tropical 'feel'.

Nice guesthouse (8 GBP a night for all of us). Everyone tired and irritable - Jackie went to find jam sandwich for Matt, David took off on a motorbike to let off steam and then we gave up and went to the poshest hotel in town for a relaxing swim and then out for a pizza. Will try harder tomorrow!

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Took a 3 hour bus trip to Halong Bay. Passed lots of unusual road signs saying only 'bikes and buffalo' allowed in this lane. We saw lots of very tall, ornate painted houses which are incredibly narrow.The Vietnamese used to pay their taxes according to the width of their houses hence they tend to be tall and very thin.

Halong Bay is a Unesco World Heritage Site and consequently attracts lots of visitors . Its a jumble of junks and I mean old junks. I tried to ask what would happen if the boat were to sink and the guide could not work out why the boat should sing!!! Eventually I got him to understand that I wanted to know where the life jackets were and his response was not to worry because the crew were good swimmers!!

We were supposed to be interested in the limestone hills and caves but the most interesting bit were the floating villages. These are complete and very poor communities of people and their dogs living in ramshackle floating huts. Livvy wondered where their gardens were.

The caves all have old vietnamese legends, usually about dragons and the 3 other symbolic animals (phoenix, lion and turtle). Matt says he much prefers these legends to the 'god stories' he gets at school.

A good sleep in a wooden cabin on the boat refreshed us for the journey to the beach resort where we stayed in these bamboo huts. Not really warm enough to fully enjoy sadly. I was desperate for a pair of socks! But we had a lovely hour kayaking in the warm South China Sea with a gentle guide whose name means 'Sun Puppy'. He took us climbing, barefoot to the top of the Island to show us a silent spot where he goes to have a sleep when he gets time off.

Back in Hanoi now for one night now. Tomorrow we take the Reunification Express for a 16 hour overnight train journey to Hue.

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Matt, Livs and Dad went to the lake to try and catch the Tai Chi exercises but arriving at 7.30am we were about 2.5 hrs late. But the highlight of the morning was the facinating market we stumbled on on the way back.

The kids saw live fish, an eel being killed, snails being disembowelled to make paste and a plate of brains (as well as the more mundane fresh fruit and vegetables and incredible array of herbs and spices for sale.

The kids bought Mum a dozen fresh roses (for about 80p but don't tell Jackie!).

Then we took a taxi to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum (he's been dead for over 30 years now and still people flock to see him) Being a Sunday, hundreds of people were queueing to see his body, which meant over an hour's wait, so we postponed the visit and went to the Temple of Literature instead.

The picture shows a group of excited Vietnamese school kids having their photo taken with us.

After a rest in our hotel room, we then did some successful shopping and got back for an early night. Off to Halong Bay for 3 days early tomorrow so you won't hear from us for a few days.

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Looked out of our hotel window to see people setting up their shops, hanging up the budgie cages and women struggling with basketfuls of fresh fruit and vegetables.

We trudged along the muddy streets to book a boat trip at Halong Bay being pestered by Cyclo men on the way.We then went to a cafe/patisserie for lunch - lovely food with tiny footstools to eat on. Banana milkshakes were 10/10. You had to take your shoes off which made no difference because we all had muddy feet.

Then we walked through the busy streets of Hanoi to the Market which was packed with numerous stalls selling everything from shoes to handmade dresses.

Matthew tried to buy some flip flops from someone who was asleep! In the end he bought them for less than a pound - Livs bought a watch for about 1.50 and Ems bought some trendy sunglasses for about 1.50 - bargain!.

Livs and Mum went to the most disgusting toilets ever and we mean disgusting!

We then walked through the rain back to our hotel to wash our feet before going to see the famous water puppets. They were colourful and beautiful, but there were lots of older people asleep behind us.

Then we took a taxi to a really nice restaurant hidden away in the French Quarter of town. We had a lovely meal served by young, friendly Vietnamese waitresses who taught us some Vietnamese words.

It's amazing how you can get used to a City in a day! remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We left Bedwyn at 5.30 on Wednesday afternoon and arrived here in Hanoi Thursday evening after losing aout 7 hours somewhere (the clocks went forward by that much).

Grandad kindly dropped us off at Heathrow in plenty of time, then we flew through the night (15hrs) across Europe and India to Bangkok, where we changed planes and flew in a smaller, older plane for another 2 hrs , landing at Hanoi at about 9pm.

Jackie had arranged for the hotel to pick us up, so there was a man with a sign saying 'Jackie Snell' at the airport and from that moment onwards we felt slightly out of control! We were bundled into an mpv and whizzed in the dark for aout half an hour to our hotel. Lots of beeping of horns and dodging other cars and motorbikes later, we arrived at Prince 1 hotel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi (there are about 40 Hotels in Hanoi with the same name).

We are all in the same room, 3 storeys up - lots of noise and hustle and bustle and noticeably clammy, but we all had a good night's sleep considering.

Today we explored Hanoi, which takes a bit of getting used to...

Dirty; lots of interesting smells; traffic all over the place (amazing no one crashes - and amazing how you can cross a busy road - the traffic just miraculously flows around you); people eating their meals out on the streets; people desperately trying to sell us things.

Still - we survived our first day and the children are upstairs in our one big room, chilling out.

Five arrive in Hanoi remains copyright of the author snellfamil, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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