Besides a lot of shopping (mostly for Heike though) we visited My Son (first pic), another beautiful world heritage site and enjoyed our first real rain season experience (second picture) … it was pouring like hell!

On the way from Hue to Hoi An we passed by the Marble Mountains (picture shows a parts of the pagoda on top) and went for a swim in the ocean. In Hoi An itself we had a walk in the city, did some shopping, grabbed some dinner and went for a long night’s out dancing in a beach-pool-bar…

which we arrived at, using an 11 seats mini-van together with 19 other people.

After a night in an overnight train we arrived in Hue, had lunch and saw the Imperial City of Hue. Covering a huge area the palace unfortunately to a large extend destroyed in various wars. The picture shows part of the Thien Mu Pagoda.

Today was our last day in Hanoi. We visited the man Ho Chi Minh himself in his mausoleum, had a look at the museum and the One Pillar Pagoda and visited the Temple of Literature and the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ (Hoa Lo Prison). We rounded off the day with a body massage and some very nice food (fried frog legs for me). Now we are in a train heading towards Hue … quite an experience!

Today we had an early morning and continued our tour through the UNESCO World Heritage bay to visit an enormous cave on one off the islands. The whole bay is just a stunning piece of nature, following Vietnamese stories created by a dragon. With breakfast and lunch as well as some sun bathing in the heat we were well prepared to find our way back to Hanoi. On the way we had our first day-time rain (wow), though only while we were driving anyways. Back in Hanoi we enjoy one of the famous Water Puppet Shows and ended the day with a drink in one of the road-side bars (with plastic chairs or stools almost in the traffic).