We visited the mausolea in the company of a German artist who had travelled to Hue with us from Hoi An. He never mentioned his surname, but I've got a feeling he is Sigurd Schneider, whose website is because basically that's the only Sigurd artist I can find who's German. Anyway, he was a nice guy, with lots to say that was interesting.

Hue's downfall was that it was bloody cold and wet. I think I would have liked the city more in less inclement weather. But enough about that. Let's move on to the overnight train to Hanoi. We were in the best class of sleeper carriage, but it was still a little on the basic side. Luckily, I just about fit in the bunk, if I didn't actually move at all during the night and I kept my head away from the metal spike that stuck out from the window wall.

We had run into the same Australian couple that we met a few times along the way. The train was some three hours late arriving in Hue, so we had lots of time to get to know each other. I will have to pop in and see them when I'm in Melbourne in a few months' time. Mea & Andrew were very lovely people.

Hanoi was, thankfully, less cold and wet. We jumped on the back of some motorbikes and found ourselves a guest house in the centre of the Old Town. Hanoi is a beautiful capital, even less brash than Saigon, with a series of lakes breaking up the cityscape and providing serene backdrops for some of the temples and older housing.

The highlight for us in Hanoi was the Water Puppet Theatre. This uniquely Vietnamese art form takes Punch & Judy onto a new and moist level. But that sounds flippant; the marionnettes were at times humourous, at times beautiful and at times spectacular (particularly the fire-breathing dragons). And the music! Oh, the music! Traditional instruments provided the soundtrack to each of the seventeen mini-plays, and there were some instrumental solos too.

The singing was gripping: mostly pentatonic, the sound was reminiscent of the Thai traditional music I heard in Bangkok, but where that was deliberately rustic in tone, this was brutally precise. It was impossible to ignore the piercing notes, and, coupled with the stringed instruments and percussion, the ensemble quite simply absorbed one's attention.

But one instrument was even more astonishing: I don't know what it was, but it was made up of a single string that was plucked with a small barbed spike and then manipulated with a curved string head to change the pitch. The deft handling of this head allowed vibrato, glissando and even step-changes in pitch. The range of the instrument was phenomenally wide, and the sound quite other-worldly. During the solo piece, time stood still and all other sensory input faded away, my mind tuned into the haunting melody and nothing else.

After this rich spectacle, Frankie & I decided to treat ourselves to a rich feast in the form of an up-market Italian restaurant. Wow! Pasta as good as that is hard to find even on the Continent, and the pizza was also first-rate.

Two other highlights of Hanoi should be mentioned: at Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum we got to see Uncle Ho himself lying in state, embalmed according to the Communist tradition (I've only got to see Chairman Mao to have the hat-trick now!), and we also enjoyed the groovy Revolutionary Museum, which seeks through 1960s architecture and interior design to communicate the message of world communism; whilst a more vintage Vietnamese experience was provided at a beautifully preserved 18th century merchant's house in the historic heart of the city, where we were served traditional tea and could marvel at some fabulous traditional silk paintings.

We took a trip to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right. This is a bay that, according to tradition, is where a giant dragon saved the Vietnamese people by hurling enormous pearls at the ships of an invading fleet from Hainan Island. The thousands of limestone pinnacles dotting the bay are those teeth, and the depression of the bay itself is where the dragon returned to the bowels of the earth (Ha Long meaning Descending Dragon). We had the first night sleeping on the boat in a secluded inlet, and the second night staying on Cat Ba Island.

Days one and three were spent sailing around the bay (day one in low cloud and scenic mist, day three in blazing sunshine). On the first day I got to know a Japanese girl called Yukiko, who taught me some key phrases to describe our day. I think I can remember "The bird returns from behind the grey cliff" and "Today we emerged from the beautiful cave" but I must admit I've forgotten how to say "On the blue sea, under the cloudy sky, between grey islands, the fisherman casts his net from the boat". Ah well, I'll have to ask the next Japanese person I meet.

Day two saw Frankie & me climbing the highest peak of Cat Ba Island to view the whole bay - a truly glorious view. I have to say I enjoy watching birds of prey circling the rocks BELOW me! Then we were brought in our own personal boat to Monkey Island, which we had to reach by kayak, an experience in itself given that it was an inflatable one and we thought we were going to drown at any moment!

On our last evening in Hanoi we went to a road that is dedicated to serving up quality local foods. We sat down and without delay were brought a huge Steamboat of vegetable soup, together with beef, shrimps, tofu, clams, kidney, fish, and a veritable mountain of fresh leaves (mostly mint). This, and the accompanying two noodle varieties, was a most delicious dinner. The evening was rounded off with some custard apple juice in a bar where we suffered a power cut and were then treated to the romantic flicker of emergency candles - how fitting for Valentine's weekend!

The next morning we got up before dawn and made our way to the airport, bound for Vientiane, the capital of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.