We arrived in Hanoi. Seven hours ahead of GMT here so we've missed out on a nights kip! Got a taxi from the airport easily dispite my panic as I'd cancelled the transfers before we left the UK. Standard $14. The traffic is mental! Never experienced anything quite like this before. People seem to transport anything and everything on their scooters and bicycles- however large! Passed a scooter on the main highway with two huge,4ft Ming style vases strapped to either side of it. What a picture. Everyone bips their horn constantly and their seems to be no rules for who has the right of way.

Massses of motorbikes, bicycles, also taxis, buses, vans, pedestrians, dogs, kids, no one stops at junctions. It's a free for all. Got to our Victory Hotel after 45 min trip. Marched up the street across a manically busy road to the Volga - 'you're staying here'.

It is impossible to to cross the roads here with a constant stream of motorbikes heading towards you. You just have to launch yourself out there and hope they slow down...It's an Art form!.. No zebra crossings here! Everything is cheek by jowl. There's no space on road or pavement. Every foot has something going on it! Cooking, working, driving, lazing, eating- Chaos! I cringed as I crossed the road and had to step over bricks, setting cement as workers mended the road outside the Volga.

Phew! we'd made it across in one piece this time! An old vietnamese woman in a conical hat patted my arm... Welcome to Hanoi!