After the 11.5 hour plane journey to KL (Kuala Lumpur) it was so nice to get of the plane and feel so at home in the airport. It was sooo western - even had a Victoria's secret buut...the toilets werent so western :( we got the high speedshuttle to the satelite terminal and then our next 3 hour flight to Hanoi which we slept through as we were now shattered! We had an hour bus ride from the airport to the city centre-where we experienced the fearlessness of the Vietnamese moped drivers-oh my god. they were weaving through the traffic and darting across "crossroads" leftright and centre. once in the centre of town we got a taxi to our hotel.

We went straight out exploring round Hanoi and sat by the lake looking out overthe bridge and temple whilst we got our bearings. We weaved our way back through the streets (and mopeds!!) where we found the Australian Cafe and had a very british spag bowl and chicken and chips!

We tried to get an early night at 7:30 but despite being jet lagged, shattered and having ear plugs id say I got about ten minutes! The street noise is amazing with a constant flow of scooters and horns going off. We "woke up" at about 10:30 which was a well deserved lay in.

This morning we have booked our Halong bay trip and found a really cool backpakers hostel/cafe where we've had lunch, found our first backpakers and got the internet. Typing this listening to a R.E.M and David Bowie mixtape...

Celia xxxx