We are reunited, amid the fog and fumes of the condensed streets of Hanoi. Coline and her mother meet me and take me on a tour of northern Vietnam.

We spend a couple of days in Hanoi, they have already walked everywhere in this city twice but somehow still do not know their way around. It is a beautiful reunion, which is what dominated my thoughts of arriving to this new country, so after that hunger was satisfied I was left with the feast in front of me.

Vietnam. A war ridden land which has spent its history fighting off invaders mostly unsuccessfully. Now independent and welcoming visitors, new histories, cultures, cuisines and natural phenomena! This is surely a testament to my love for Coline if this comes second to seeing her.

After Hanoi and my free fall into the chaotic streets with buildings vomiting their residents and living rooms onto the pavements, we left for Ha Long bay.

Ha Long bay translates to descending dragon and the bay is as fantastical as its name. A series of scattered mountain tops emerging from the water, in no uniformed pattern, almost like the gods scattered them into the water like marbles on asphalt.

We boarded our ship to spend the day and night cruising around the bay, gradually plodding around the islets, we traveled back in time, we where like colonialists, waited on hand and foot and the decor to match it, dinner with strangers that felt like something from an Agatha Christie novel.

This 24 hours ended far too soon.

We left this paradise for the northern hills, our bus weaved through the mountains climbing ever higher and the temperatures climbing ever lower. For the first time on this trip we were cold, wrapped in blankets and multiple layers. It was a brutal… 16 degrees. The clouds where hugging us and we could not see more than a 10 metre radius around us, we stayed in an old colonial building that would not look out of place in a ski resort, a open fire, hot soup and a good time. Welcome to Sapa.

My miss Saigon kept me very warm this night.