Our minibus from the Halong Bay trip dropped us off at the hotel by 3pm. We took a cyclo and headed to Malaysian Airlines to pick up our new tickets. We then returned to the hotel and met up with Jaime and Kam, who had arrived from Hue. The four of us then went out for an Italian dinner (as had become our tradition). We then went for drinks at a local bar. We ended the night quickly after the sound of the rats scurring above our heads became unbearable.

The next day was Kam's birthday and Dan and Jen headed to her hotel to surprise her with a cake and a card. Jen decided to join the girls for an afternoon at the spa and doing a little shopping, while Dan decided to do some more sightseeing. Jen's afternoon consisted of a pedicure at the Sofitel, a visit to an ice cream cafe and a leisurely walk around the opera house and lake. Dan spent his afternoon walking around the Ho Chi Minh Museum, the Ho Chi Minh masoleum, and the house where Ho Chi Minh had lived in the 1950's. He then spent some time relaxing at a coffee shop right next to the lake.

That night we went out for Kam's birthday to a cyclo restaurant, where you get to eat while sitting in cyclos. The place was cute and the food was ok, but not great. At 12am we said goodbye to Jaime and Kam, since we would not be seeing them again on this trip. We then headed back to our hotel.

The next day we went on a tour to the Perfume Pagoda. A minibus picked us up and we drove for 2 hours out of Hanoi. We got off by a river and boarded rowboats. The boat was long and narrow and our woman rower used two oars to guide us down the river for 1 1/2 of staight rowing! The view along the river was remarkable and the trip was very pleasant. We reached the Pagoda around noon. After a quick lunch our guide took us to visit the Pagoda. The Pagoda was nice but not as impressive as some of the other Pagodas we had seen. We then did a short hike up into the mountains, where we saw a temple inside a cave. The custodian of the temple offered us tea and we sat with him while staring out at the mountains.

We then got back into our boats and headed back down the river (another 1 1/2 hours of rowing). On our way back to town we stopped at a small village to see how silk was made. For our last night in Vietnam we went for a good Italian dinner and walked around our area. We had really enjoyed our Vietnam trip and were a little sad to be leaving. The scenery was the highlight of Vietnam. The country had some of the most beautiful landscapes that we had seen so far. Vietnam was very affordable (even though they try to take advantage of tourists) and the people were generally nice. The local food was alright, but nothing amazing and it was never hard to find descent Italian or Western style. We ended the night by getting ready for our plane trip which would take us back to KL.