Hanoi, Ninh Binh & Ha Long Bay, 4 Nights

From Noi Bai over the Red River into the city. The afternoon is a first walk in the Old Quarter — the thirty-six streets each once named for a trade, the tube houses, the traffic that parts around you — and Hoan Kiem lake with the red bridge to the Ngoc Son temple. In the evening the water-puppet theatre by the lake, an art from the flooded paddies of the delta, and dinner of bun cha at a table on a stool.

Ba Dinh square early for the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which opens in the morning only and is closed on Mondays and Fridays and for about two months of maintenance most autumns — when it is closed the square, the stilt house and the One Pillar pagoda are still seen. Then the Temple of Literature, the Confucian academy founded in 1070 with its stelae on stone turtles, and lunch in the French quarter. The afternoon is the Hoa Lo prison museum or the train street and an egg coffee; the evening is free.

South on the expressway, about 95 km, to Ninh Binh, where the limestone stands in towers out of the rice fields. Hoa Lu first, the capital of the tenth-century Dinh and Le kings, then the rowing boat at Trang An: two hours through the karst on a river that passes under the mountains through a series of caves, rowed by a boatwoman who uses her feet. Lunch by the water. Late afternoon the five hundred steps up Hang Mua to the dragon on the ridge, with the Tam Coc valley and its river below. Night among the paddies.

An early drive north-east across the delta to the Ha Long harbour, about three hours, to board the cruise around midday. Lunch as the boat moves out among the islands — 1,969 of them, inscribed by UNESCO in 1994 — then the afternoon programme: the chambers of Sung Sot cave on Bo Hon island, a kayak or a bamboo boat in a lagoon, a swim off Ti Top island for the brave. Sunset on the top deck, dinner aboard, squid fishing off the stern for those who stay up. The cabins have windows onto the water.

Tai chi on deck at sunrise if you want it, and the bay in the early light with the fishing boats out; breakfast as the cruise makes a last stop at a cave or a floating village before the harbour at about eleven. The vehicle is waiting for the drive back across the delta to Hanoi's Noi Bai airport, about two and a half hours, for the evening flight. A late lunch stop is made on the way; an extra Hanoi night is available on request for morning departures.