After a short hop over from Hong Kong (flight time 1hr 30mins), we’ve arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam.

We’ll be here for a week staying in the DeSoylia Hotel, one of the classier “boutique” hotels in the city. The rooms here are huge and modern, and they’ve to kept all the classic hotel traditions, including complimentary bowls of fruit and chocolates on the pillow.  

We decided not to brave the outside world for now, a decision swayed by the fact that the hotel restaurant (Cay Cau) is one of the best in the area, and despite the indefinite lack of poultry dishes (due to the bird flu “epidemic”), they serve some of the best food we’ve tasted so far on our journey.