I am at the moment very proud of myself as I am after visiting Hoan Kiem lake, the old quarter and Dong Xuam Market. All by foot and all on my own!!!! Woohoo!!!! And I did all this using only a map with no help from anybody, well bar one occasion when I got a little bit lost, but still!!!

This may not seem like much of an achievement but the streets of Hanoi are crazy and it is so easy to get confused and disorientated. A few people I had spoken to before I left had told me they had gotten lost so well done to me.

The streets of Hanoi really are out of this world. Motorbikes are the number one means of transport so the footpath is pretty much blocked off by parked bikes on the outside of the path and people selling products on the inside. Because of that I spent the majority of my exploration walking on the side of the road.

The driving over here is psychopathic. There are zero rules and people just drive wherever they feel like going. This means that when crossing the road you literally have to just walk. There could be 30 bikes coming for you on a very main road and all you can do is just walk because if you wait you will be waiting all day. As long as you walk in a slow and steady pace the bikes just dodge in front or behind you. On a few occasions bikes missed me by such a small amount that they hit off me. It is terrifying at first but after all my walking today I am much more confidant.

Another funny thing about the roads is that people are continually beeping their horns at one another. So much so that after a few minutes you no longer notice it. I wouldn't be surprised if half of the time they beep just for the craic of it.

Because of all the traffic the pollution in the city is something else, when coming into the city from the airport I initially thought that it was very foggy but quickly copped on to the fact that I was looking at dense, dark smog. After a few hours of walking about in the city air I felt a bit nauseous and my chest is a bit crampy.

As well as the lake and market, I also visited Hoa Lo prison with Andy. This prison had two significant roles in the past, originally build by the French it was used to hold Vietnamese revolutionary prisoners. The treatment of these prisoners was nothing less than barbaric! Males and females were places in the most horrendous living conditions where they were tortured, starved and often sentenced to death.
What was cool about the prison at this time was that it wasn't the most successful of prisons. Hundreds escaped either by climbing the walls or crawling through the sewers. Fair play I say, fair play!!

In later times the prison was used for American pilots captured during the war on Vietnam.

The old quarter was pretty cool because you can clearly see the influence that the French occupation had on the design of the streets. To fully appreciate this you had to look up rather than straight ahead. This allows one to see the architecture of the buildings which have a strong European feel with their typical continental style shutters, balconies and colours.

I arrived in Hanoi yesterday and it was really stressful. Before coming to Vietnam I was well aware of the scams that take place. It is a very common occurrence for taxis to take you to the wrong destinations or ask you for more money than originally agreed upon. When my flight arrived I got a mini bus into town. The bus stops at a station and I knew from my map that my accommodation was a small distance from this. I offered the bus driver extra money to take me the short distance to my accommodation because I didn't want to get out and hail another taxi for fear of the scams. The journey that should have taken a matter of minutes lasted about fifteen minutes. I was so worried I was close to tears. Being a girl on my own in a taxi in a strange city is not a nice experience. My mind imagined the worst and I just prayed and prayed that I would make it to my hostel in one piece. I was so scared I even had a fake phone conversation describing where I was and all that.
Obviously I got there eventually and I was worrying over nothing but it is difficult not to at times. When I got to the hostel one of the first people I saw was Andy and I was never more relieved to see a familiar face in my life.

It is all an experience though. That is why i decided to travel on my own, to push myself out of my comfort zone. With every such experience I can feel myself growing and growing and getting braver and braver.

I saw a lot of the city today and I am delighted that I did but we are leaving tomorrow and I am pretty happy about that. Although the city is cool and bursting with energy, it wasn't the place for me and I will be in no rush back any time soon.

It is now the next day. I just want to post a little note. Before Vietnam I went to an elephant park in Chaing Mai. This experience was an important mile stone in my travelling and really touched me. I want to put some time into writing my post about the park because i feel like there is a lot to talk about. At the moment I don't have that time. Because of that I am going to skip it for the moment but I will come back and talk about it. The reason I don't have much time is because I am on a buffalo trip which will last a week. I made the foolish mistake of going on a pub crawl last night so this morning at half six I was pulled out of bed and on to a bus. At the moment I am switched off from my surroundings but when I do collect my wits I think this will be a great trip. The buffalo trip was organised by our hostel. There are twelve of us in total and we are all going to travel down Vietnam together, partially by bus partially on scooters, with lots of activities along the way.. It will hopefully be great, as long as this alleged typhoon doesn't mess everything up!