Thanks for making it past the first post and not quitting on me yet. The first place we stayed was Hanoi, arriving at 9am local time. We were about a 45 minute taxi from the airport to our hostel, the much acclaimed central backpackers hostel, which served free beer to all guests between 7pm and 8pm, as well as having an intimidating looking jar of 'snake wine' (literally dead snakes in a jar filled with s*** wine). There were also some beds and stuff too.

Hanoi was one hell of a hectic city. The roads were mostly packed with scooters and cars, who gave no regard to pedestrian crossings and the Vietnamese highway code is either extremely lax or non-existent. Drivers in Hanoi reluctantly stop at traffic lights, with many scooters taking them as optional. Generally the buildings were narrow and relatively tall, with everything seemingly cramped in.

The morning was spent chilling out in a local cafe, with most of us (although not me) extremely jet-lagged having slept about 8 hours (or less) of the last 48. the afternoon was spent around a lake in hanoi, which had a pretty temple in the middle which we visited.

Dinner was spend at a local restaurant where I had another variation of rice and vegetables - a theme for the month I feel, being a vegetarian in Vietnam certainly isn't difficult, just often lacks variety (although its my own fault and won't complain about it - much). That evening we headed back to central backpackers (our hostel) for the 'happy hour' - free unlimited lukewarm beer between 7pm and 8pm, poured out of empty 5 litre bottles. A few rounds of 'f*** the dealer' later, its fair to say we had a bit to drink. Enough to later sample the aforementioned snake wine, which predictably tasted like something had simultaneously died and s*** itself in my mouth.

After breakfast and the realisation that I was in store for a stinking hangover, we headed out into Hanoi to see what more it had to offer. We visited the Vietnamese military museum (after 2 of the group vomiting), getting a chance to see some propaganda (related to the attempts to remove the French occupation) as well as see some cool tanks/military stuff. Having eaten we then visited the temple of literature, which was essentially an older, prettier version of exam schools in Oxford. It was the site of Vietnam's' first national university and was supposedly built in 1070 (thanks wikipedia for making me look cultured). It had 5 courtyards (although we could only find 4..) with the highlight being the courtyard with the turtle stones on which were engraved the names of the graduates, the oldest being from the 1400s (from the top of my head). There wasn't much to see but what we did see was very pretty and well kept, considering its' age.

That evening, we had a chance to visit Hanoi's night market, which was a fantastic experience. I bought my first souvenir of the trip (the fetching shirt in the photo) with the market having everything from knock-off converse trainers, to knock-off beats by dre headphones - you could even listen before you committed to buying! We also got to see the worlds worst pick-pocketers, who worked as a completely conspicuous pair (one of whom had a terrible mohawk), trying to get into tourists' bags. When they kept failing, they then tried to steal from the stalls themselves, and were s*** at that too. We ate at a street restaurant, where the owners understood basically no English and headed off for an early night, ready for ha long bay the next day.

It was once said that 'women are like fairground rides - f***ing mental' and the same can be said of hanoi. Every street was packed, with scooters and motor bikes appearing out of nowhere, and people constantly trying to grab your attention and sell you stuff. I've never been anywhere in the world like it, and I don't think I will. Although it hasn't been my favourite place on the trip, it was certainly unique and i'm glad I saw a fair bit of it.