Hanoi

We manged to get the local bus to Danag airport after meeting a cheecky chap at the bus station who started off trying to charge us 50,000 dong each to Danang. We just laughed and siad we knew the fare should be 10,000 but we will give him 15,000. We were still negotiating as the bus was pulling away until he finally laughed, agreed and let us on. We jumped on just as the bus was pulling out.

There were some characters on that bus! The bus literally didn't stop for anyone to get on, instead, the boy and his father just grabbed people and their luggage off the streeets and pulled them onto the moving bus, and threw them into a seat. The lad kept talking to us and offering us cigarettes in between pushing people into seats. It was a great journey! One girl got dragged on had a basket around her waist, full of hair bands, toys, pirate CDs etc. As she got pushed into her seat one of her toys gave a comedy squeek that set me, Lee and the lad into fits of giggles. They threw us out (literally, the bus didn't stop) once we got to Danang and told us not to pay more than 5,000 dong each on a moto to the airport and waved us off. The first motos we asked told us it would cost $5 per person (about 64,000 dong!) so we laughed and carried on walking. We got a taxi to take us for 30,000 dong but it was pouring down again so we were happy to pay the extra to have a roof over us!

Our plane was a tiny propeller plane but it took off smoothly and landed fine, despite the complete lack of safety announcements! People didn't have their seatbelts on for take off or landing and the cabin crew didn't care either. It was all really strange (and scary0 to think how different things can be.

At the airport, we were told we could get a Vietnamese Shuttle bus to the centre for $2. We got hearded into a m i ni van who claimed to be the Vietnam Airlines shuttle bus and they did only charge $2 but I was suspiciious. The driver was rude and pushed me onto the seat by my backpack before I had even taken it off. When I turned round and shouted at him he didn't look to impressed but I was gettign so sick of the Vietnamese way towards us that I just snapped! Liekwise, when we got off the mini bus to a sea of tuk-tuk drivers and guesthouse touts not taking no for an answer I soon lost my polite tone and went back to my Blackburn roots!!! :)

We headed straight to our guesthouse that we had actually booked this time becuase they had rave reviews on tripadvisor, so ignored all the other guesthouse touts trying to show us their rooms, only to find that when we got to the Hanoi Guesthouse they had given away our room. We were absolutely furious! We had given them our flight number and confirmed our booking but had declined the offer of airport pickup for $15 as we knew we could do it cheaper on the bus. This clearly meant that they no longer viewed our booking as a booking and gave away our room! When the receptionist said that she had reserved a room at thier sister hotel in case we turned up we thought we would give them the benefit of the doubt and go and see it. When we got there, it was a twin room and not a double, and was in a complete mess. The beds had not been made and people's clothes and suitcases were all over the floor! We stormed out.. we couldn't believe it. it was getting dark, we had nowhere to go and every guesthouse we happened upon as full.

We finally got a room for $10 a night, it was just big enough for a double bed (God knows how they got it in there!) and the bathroom was across the hall. It backed onto to a little alley that was really noisy 24/7 and we had a loud speaker right outside our window where local annoucements were made early in the morning!

Hanoi by Day

Wandered around Hoan Kiem Lake, the old quarter and the to the City Opera House. There is a little temple on a island in the middle of the lake that houses the remains of a giant turtle that was founf in the lake. It is the ugliest hing I have ever seen but the size of it is pretty unbelievable. Lee still doesn't believe it is real! On our way to the temple two young girls came runnin gup to us to ask for a photo with us. I assumed they both wanted a picture with Lee as he always gets stopped so I went to take the camera and take a picture but they wanted a picture just of the two of us! I went bright red and didn't quite know what to do! It was really strange - after they took a picture the wished us a happy life and a very welcome trip in their country. It was really touching actually - I just wished the rest of Vietnam were like those 2 girls becuase we certianly didn't feel welcome! They were so sweet and I wish I had asked them more questions and chatted to them more but I was so embarrassed! Lee is convinced they stopped him becuase they thought he was Brad Pitt....!

Hanoi seems like a geat actually with lots to do and lots of diverse areas to eat and shop in. Just like the markets, the whole city seems to be dividing by the wares on offer. Whole streets will sell just stationary, then the next will be devoted to mechanics, the next to fabric etc. It's really odd to see a whole city laid out in this way and even the street names translate as 'china bowl street' or 'cotton street' etc.

We had been walking round for ages, just taking everything in and headed to a 'Baguette and Cholcoate' for lunch, recommended in the Lonely Planet... it's now a maternity shop and certainly doesn't sell baguettes or cholcoate so we had lunch elsewhere before wandering to to a little pagoda on the other side of town. It was the first one we have been to so far that did not have any tourists in it. It was full of locals praying and making offereings so we felt a little out of place but it was nice to see an authentic temple being used in the local way.

The Cultural Palace was nearby so we headed to that thinking it must be a pretty nice building to have such a purpose.... oh no. It was a cement slab with no character at all! Maybe it is more inspiring inside but it was gettign late so we just wandered back to our grubby little room, via Finnegans Pub(!) and then to 69 Bar for dinner.

ON the way, we both started to feel a bit ill. Hanoi is such a polluted city from all the moto bikes - it is covered in them. Crossing the road is a talent here and they beep for everything so you are constantly jumping back and forth. The pavements are used for everything but walking on and when you first see the amount of motoboikes that whizz past you on each corner it's a bit of a shock. It not only gives you a headache, constantly hearing the rev and having to be on your guard for not being run down, but the fumes really start to get to you. Nothing stops us eating though and we had a lovely meal and got talking to a Scottish couple next to us and we all ended up going to 'Le Pub' a few streets down.

I was over the moon to see it was gin and tonic night so I happily sipped away on a few G&T's instead of the usual stumpy bottle of local beer! It was all geting a bit too gassy for me!

Walking back we were shocked to see tht for such a big city, things had closed really early. Everywhere was dead at about 11.30pm and the cleaners were out on the streets sweeping up the days debree.