From Hue to Hanoi and beyond

Dorus and I arrived in Hanoi early from the night bus and found our way, through a tout, to a seemingly nice hotel in the heart of the Old Quarter. We began here by visiting all the major cites including the mausoleum of 'Uncle Ho' which was a little bizarre but really helped us to understand how important he was and still is to the people here. We went to bed feeling that we had done the city justice and even after having sampled some dog meat with a friend we had met a week or so earlier in Hoi An. The next morning started badly with a knock at the door to let us know that the hotel had made an error had double booked our room and could we move to the owner's 'sister's' hotel. Sure, no problem, however we do expect you to ensure that the price of this new hotel  is significantly lower to make it worth the move we said. No problem she replied. 2 hours and a few shouting matches later we were still in the hotel with the owners having failed to find us somewhere else to stay and the incredible dissapearance of her 'sister' along with her hotel went relativly undiscussed. We made it clear and thought we were right to do so, that, since the were simply  throwing us out wothout finding us an alternative, that their mistake had to come at a cost and that was that we were not willing to pay the full pirce for the night that we had spent there. I think its safe to say that the concept of owing something to your guests as the owner of a hotel has yet to reach Vietnam and allowing us out the door without $9 changing hands was simply not an option. Tto cut a long story short, we were eventually thrown out onto the street $7 poorer but escaped experiencing the vietnamese police - we were both thankful that we had not had to go through the experiance alone and were suitable shaken by the whole event.
After a few comparitvely unstressful days in the city Dorus and I eventually moved on to stay on Cat Ba island in Ha Long bay which, save for the one town on the island, is a beautiful place. We spent a few days chilling out there kayaking, walking, motorbiking and eventually headed back to the mainland on a boat to take in the best bits of the bay. Other highlights of our stay included spontaniously helping out a lload of boatmen move a few hundred barrels of diesel from a truck to a boat - random but a lot of fun!
I then moved on alone to Sapa in the north of the country and very close to China for a few days of exploring the mountains before heading home. It is fair to say that the scenery there is fantastic with rice terraces as far as the eye can see on very steep hillsides. I spent my time there on a motorbike choosing to get as far away from the town as possible to try and see some villages untouched by tourism. I was able to find some amazing little places tucked away at the end of vast valleys which really helped to make my journey there worthwhile.
Tomorrow i move on to Singapore for 3 days or so, not too sure what to expect but am sure it will be a little different from here..