Hong Kong didn’t make a great first impression. It was wet and grey in the midst of what I was told was the most prolonged cold spell in 60 years. Add to that a poor transfer experience from the airport, a long slow check in at the hotel and a mix up where we were booked on large group bus tours for 2 days rather than having a tour guide and I was not feeling too happy. Thankfully things got better.

We decided not to inflict a bored 3 year old on a bus load of tourists for 2 days and just go round ourselves and most importantly later that evening the rain stopped.

The next morning we decided to make our way to the Peak ourselves. The concierge gave us the wrong information on buses, actually the concierge in HongKong gave us lots of wrong information, but Nigel has googled everything before we left the hotel and got us to the peak tram via the iconic Star Ferry.

The tram itself was an experience reminding me of the steepest streets in San Francisco but steeper.

The views were a bit grey and the lookouts crowded but there were some lovely quiet walks that Nigel insisted on trying that were worth the effort.

We took the bus down rather than the tram and enjoyed the hair raising journey and hairpin bends.

Hoi An itself is a lovely old town. Even with the attractions of the beach and the tailors we did manage to see some of the town and even one or two temples. There is a tradition of lantern making and the old town is beautifully lit up at night.

We tried a cyclo trip again but less successfully than in Hanoi and our drivers dropped us off at an old house where we were given a tour and then given the heavy sell on some tourist rubbish. The driver then had the cheek to charge us extra for this added service! Oh well part of the tourist experience.

Apart from rom relaxing beaches Hoi An is famous for it’s tailors. It was an old silk trading centre and has 400 or so tailors.

my daughters had been looking forward to this stop since they first heard about it. Watching Top gear Vietnam added to the excitement as The hosts had suits made here.

after a day relaxing at the pool we went in to Hoi An and visited the first reasonable sized tailors we saw. The girls looked through some catalogues and chose some outfits and then chose fabrics and got measure. I did the same and Nigel picked some suits. Afterwards they went to the shoemakers nexus door and got some shoes and boots made too. It took 3 fittings in all to get everything done but the girls especially were very happy.

We wanted a break to recover from our sightseeing. Nigel asked the travel agent for somewhere very nice and they took him at his word. The Nam Hai in Hoi An is the most over the top luxurious place I have ever stayed. Our 3 bed villa is made up of 4 buildings, not including the butler’s area, with a pool and direct beach access. I am glad I took a baby monitor though, I just wish I had taken  two of them as the bedrooms are far apart.

The pattern seems to be foggy early morning the sunny then cooler in the afternoons. Plenty of time to relax by the pool or on the beach and plenty of time to visit the tailor shops that Hoi An is famous for.

Another long bumpy journey brought us back us back to Hanoi. Although the road was bumpy it was all much more developed than the dirt roads of rural Laos a few weeks before.

we decided to do the ultimate tourist activity and take cyclos around the old town.  It is a much easier way of seeing the city and avoids the constant drama of crossing the road. Hanoi was full of brides and grooms posing for photos. Apparently it is the done thing here to have a photo shoot about a month before the wedding.

we followed up one touristy activity with another by walking by the lake and going to see the water puppets. We even managed the rather less touristy activity of visiting a Lego shop.

Water puppets are a tradition Vietnamese art form but 45 minutes was long enough.

Nigel took the girls out for the Earth hour concert that night. They really enjoyed it though it wasn’t their type of music. The streets were closed to traffic and full of people.

Everyone who had been there said we had to go to Halong Bay. It is a three and a half hour bumpy drive from Hanoi and I get sea sick and don’t like boats. All those people can’t be wrong though. Can they?

They were not wrong. Halong Bay is worth it and thankfully the water was as smooth as glass so seasickness wasn’t an issue. The bay is full of karst formations, big limestone rocks basically but much more picturesque than it sounds.

We had booked a private boat because I thought it would be easier with children than sharing a boat with either partying backpackers or an organised golden years trip. So we ended up with a crew of 7 looking after the six of us. Our boat is the white one in the bottom right photo.

We visited a floating village, watched the sunset, had a a cooking class, a children’s meal and then when they went to bed an adults meal. The next morning after watching the sunrise from my balcony we kayaked through some caves. Hard work and probably not very sensible with a three year old in my kayak but we all wore lift jackets. We rounded it off with a tai chi class on the sundeck and a brunch before returning to land and a long trip back to Hanoi.

On the journey there and back we saw lots of women in conical hats working in the paddy fields. No machinery all done by hand.

We also saw lots of extreme Vietnamese driving. 20,000 people a year die in road traffic accidents here. I am not surprised.

We left the heat and humidity of Cambodia for the 20 degrees and grey skies of Hanoi.

The first thing you notice in Hanoi is the insane traffic, I would never drive here. The second you notice is the houses. The houses that are not shacks are taller narrower versions of the painted ladies in San Francisco. The city is huge. It has about 10 million inhabitants and all of them travel by motor bike.

The first evening we didn’t even leave the hotel ordering room service even in an international hotel was enough to an adventure.

The next morning I woke at 6 am to the sound of loudspeakers and traffic. I later discovered there are loudspeakers on every street corner in Hanoi and the government broadcasts at 6am every morning.

In keeping with this one of the first things I spotted on our tour of Hanoi was a huge statue of Lenin. It must be one of the few left in the world. We looked at the hours long queue to file past the body of Ho Chi Minh but decided not to join it. His houses and cars seemed to attract equally huge queues.

We were to look at some old temples and pagodas but decided we had seen enough of them and instead we went to the ethnology museum and walked around the “36 streets”. The old quarter of Hanoi. We watched people cooking and eating lunches on the pavement and in doorways, this is Hanoi street food. There are also women walking around with a yolk across their shoulders carrying baskets on either end with food for sale.

At one stage our guide told us everyone was talking about us. At this stage I am used to people staring because they don’t see many fair children but the guide said the really shock this time was the number of children we have.

Four children is unheard of in Vietnam.

We did brave a walk in Hanoi to a restaurant that night. The trick to crossing the road apparently is to walk slowly and steadily and everyone will just avoid you. It works.

We skipped the swan and swallow on the menu in the restaurant though.
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When we were planning this trip I made the mistake of telling the girls that you can zip line in the jungle within the Angkor Temple area. They didn’t forget.

After two days of temples they were ready to zip line. I am afraid of height but have zip lined before on holidays with the girls. Nigel decided to stay at the hotel with John and relax and the girls and I headed off.

I had read that the zip lines were 45 metres up in the tree tops. This had never really registered with me until I was climbing up to the first platform. 45 metres is very high. It is three quarters the height of Liberty Hall in Dublin. I was secretly hoping the girls would be frightened and we would have to quit but no such luck.

So we braved zip lines and sky bridges in the treetops for 2 hours. At one stage Katie went too slowly and got stuck half across a zip line and had to be rescued by a guide who went out to her and pulled her in on a rope. I have to admit I have had nightmares since reliving my 11year old hanging from a cable 45 metres up in the Cambodian jungle.

The whole operation was very well run by a group from New Zealand to international standards and they had warned the girls that children do get stuck on some of the ziplines and that they are not to panic they will be rescued within minutes.

I have no photos of this because I broke my own iphone screen in Laos and no one wanted to risk theirs in my pocket while I swung through the trees.

Our second day of temples was to include 4 more temples but John got his objections in early. When we arrived at Banteay Srei he refused to get out of the car. Banteay Srei is a lovely temple, different to the ones we had seen the day before because it is made from red stone and much smaller than some of the others. Some musicians who had been injured by land mines were playing traditional music and I was happy to donate as they distracted John long enough for us to admire the temple.

To appease John we cut out the next temple and went to a butterfly farm instead. Gorgeous and very relaxing.

Next temple on the tour was the hospital temple. It was probably the one I found most interesting. There were different areas that were used to treat different illnesses. John discovered the fascinating activity of drawing in the sand with a stick and temporarily withdrew his objections.

Our last temple Preah Khan is a large Buddhist temple. John acquired a red parasol from the guide to entertain himself. Katie provided the main entertainment though by fainting in the heat.

One of the “must dos” in this region is to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. The sun was due to rise at 6.15 and we were being picked up for our sunrise cycle tour at 5.20am. With 4 children to get ready and covered in insect repellent that meant setting the alarm for 4.30.

With  loads of other people we sat on the causeway waiting for the sun to rise And hoping we would see it through the clouds. At 6.30 the sun put in an appearance to the delight of the crowds. An hour exploring was enough for the kids though who were ready for breakfast. We were whisked off to the jungle where a chef was waiting to cook breakfast in a wooden hut and then it was time to cycle.

The rules of the road seem to be if someone beeps at you move out of their way But we had a guide cycling at the front and the rear and they were very patient with endless requests to adjust helmets and seats. We also had a van drive behind us at a snails pace.

We cycled to Bayon, probably my favourite temple. 216 faces carved on to towers and then to the Terrace of the Elephants. At that stage John refused to get back on his bike seat so I abandoned my bike and went in the van with him to our next stop Ta Prohm, the Tomb Raider Temple.