Haven't blogged in a while, so this will be brief whilst we play catch up.

We landed in Hanoi in the evening after a very easy 1 hr flight (the alternative would have been a36hr bus ride!). From the moment we landed, everything we wanted/needed to do seemed like such a struggle, from getting a taxi to the city to finding a hotel room. After 3 hrs, we eventually found a place to stay for the night and sorted ourselves out with a good meal.It was a veggie restaurant, but really good food, with a Mum/Gilly-friendly menu (it stated whether the meal had eggs or not!).

The city was very busy, and crossing the road seemed like a sport here. The convential, western method isn't possible, just go and hope for the best! We spent a lunchtime at Little Hanoi just watching the motorbikes at the crossroads outside just for entertainment. It amazes us that we didn't see any major crashes!

We didn't really warm to the city-it wasn't very friendly and it seemed like everyone was there to rip us off. In hindsight, it was just a major culture shock coming from the peace that was Laos. Whilst in hanoi, we went to see Ho Chi Minh, but he was on holiday in Russia for a touch-up! We've heard from fellow travellers that his mausoleum was something to see, unfortunately we couldn't. But we did go to the HCM museum and the palace, which were cool. We also saw the changing of the guards, which Lonley Planet stated they rival Buckingham Palace-yet another non-truth from LP!

Keen to escape the city, we headed to Cat Ba Island to see Ha Long Bay.