And I thought Bangkok was crazy! On leaving the airport at around 7pm, after a delay caused by our mini bus driver to pick up as many passengers as we could, we set off in the mayhem that was the Hanoi traffic. I knew from Thailand and Laos that drivers beep their horn when overtaking, but in Vietnam it's ridiculous!

The minibus dropped us off in Hanoi's Old Quarter and we were immediately mobbed by a group of kids trying to sell us a room in their guest house. I just kept telling them Vic was the boss, sending a swarm of them to him while I took it easy! :) We took a time-out and entered a nearby cafe for some food and a local beer. Even that didn't prevent one of them, a kid of about 14, coming to our table to continue the sell. We didn't mind him being there, so long as he didn't say a word..he didn't! We eventually agreed to check out his guest house. In my opinion, the people that run these places are all shysters. They turn off the air-con, the internet doesn't work, then they try the hard-sell. "You can only stay another night if you buy the tour to the islands with us". Fine..We'll go elsewhere! After one night there, we did.

Returning to the first night, we dropped off our things, freshened up, and went out to see what the night life was like. It was pretty quiet, but managed to find one bar called Funky Monkey which was okay. Vic and I got chatting to a couple of girls, a South African and Canadian, both of whom were working in Taiwan as English teachers but were on holiday. We found a bar that closed only when we wanted to leave, so we stayed until about 5am, drinking and playing darts.

I left a short while before Vic and must admit, had some difficulty in finding our guest house. At that time in the morning, you'd imagine there wouldn't be that many people to ask directions. However, on arriving at the lake (which is prominent in the centre of Hanoi's Old Town), there were dozens and dozens of OAPs running - it was like something from the 80s movie, Cocoon. Even on the adjacent streets, there were plenty of octogenarians to ask the way from the guest house business card I had. My requests however, were usually met with a gesture signalling, "I need my glasses". Eventually, a more than helpful man (probably in his 60s) who spoke broken English managed to help me find my way. He asked me about my journey, where each country I listed was met with a chuckle and an enthusiastic nod.

The next day (or that day, depending on how you look at it), we did some sight-seeing aroud the busy busy streets. There are so many people riding motorbikes in Vietnam, and with no real system in place to cross the street, you have to just walk and trust they will avoid you. The constant beeping of the horns really does begin to grate after a while though.

The next day we travelled to Halong Bay, on the Vietnam coast. The scenery is beautiful, and was well worth the 2-day visit. The organisation of the trip was a bit rubbish though, we left dock late, then hung about at the next port for no apparent reason, with the guide making excuses all the time. I wasn't too bothered though, as we all sat on the top deck and soaked up the rays. After a short stop to look at some of the caves in the area, we finally arrived at our destination, it was dark, so the suggestion posed by the guide to go for a swim seemed a bit silly. So, me, Vic and a couple of Canadian girls we met decided to jump in for a bit. The water was still luke-warm but we only stayed for a few minutes.

Halong Bay is meant to be inhabited by the Vietnamese equivalent of the Loch Ness monster. Old sailors believe the legend, while the paranoid Vietnam military believe it's a spy-submarine. Whatever it is, I didn't see it...unfortunately.

Since we did very little on the first day, we rose bright and early at 6am, to do some kayaking. It didn't take long for Vic and I to get the hang of it, and took in some fantastic views of just a few of the several thousand islands in the area. I say islands, but they are not of the usual description, they are more like towering outcrops, mini-mountains where you can easily get lost if left to your own devices. After sailing onwards for a short time, we disembarked to take a smaller boat to an area which was used in the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. We arrived back to port around mid-day, for the four hour journey back to Hanoi.

We didn't have too long before the bus arrived to get us from Hanoi to Hue, but I have to say I was glad to leave Hanoi. I enjoyed myself, but it's not somewhere I would return to in a hurry.