Hello Hanoi!

It's been an interesting trip so far. Right now, my sister and I are back in Hanoi after doing an overnight trip to Halong Bay. Hanoi is a noisy, lively city, and the trip to Halong was peaceful and quiet. The Internet connection here has proven to be super slow, so I've decided to wait until I get home to upload our hundreds of photos. Our trip is more than half over, and I wish we had more time to explore more of Vietnam.

Here is an overview of what we saw/did so far:

Hong Kong -
Day 1: ate dim sum at Maxim's Palace, went up Victoria's Peak, went to the Temple Street Night Market, went to the Ladies' Market, walked the Avenue of the Stars and saw the Symphony of Lights, ate at a whole in the wall noodle joint
Day 2: ate dim sum at some fancy tea house, walked Hollywood Road and saw the Man Mo Temple, went to Lantau Island, took the Ngong Ping cable card to the Po Lin Monastery and the world's biggest outdoor Buddha statue, wandered around the Causeway Bay shopping area and found a whole in the wall Chinese BBQ place for dinner.
Day 3: ate dim sum at Viking Seafood Restaurant near the hotel, then went to the airport to fly to Hanoi!

Hanoi -
Day 1: wandered around Hanoi's Old Quarter and stumbled upon a night market, ate bun bo Hue at Restaurant 69 near our hotel.
Day 2: walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, visited the Ngoc Son Temple, passed the Cathedral, ate a delicious delicious lunch at Green Tangerine, shopped some more, then at night walked to the French Quarter, saw the Opera House, ate dinner at Club Opera.
Day 3: went to Halong Bay on an overnight cruise, went kayaking in Halong Bay.
Day 4: saw Amazing Cave before cruising back to the pier and returned in Hanoi!

We have tickets to see the famous water puppets tonight, then afterwards we're going to go find some yummy food for dinner. I'll go into more detail once I upload all the pics.