7th of January 2010: Woke up this morning feeling fantastic… great night sleep, in a great hostel. After the Baguettes with jam and banana for breaky the four of us (Liam, Siobhan, Rik and I) headed off to explore Hanoi with advice with were to go from our roomy Yohan (the crazy Swedish guy who knows a great pharmacy to buy scissors and sanitary pads hahaha). Oh I have to add we asked him where a mobile phone shop and 45 minutes later we had a detailed description of the whole entire place… oh well! So down the crazy wild traffic streets we went: 14 degrees, foggy, wet and HECTIC Mentalism, definitely different than Bangkok! We made our way to the Vietnam war museum, passing bird shops, hilariously hideous clothes stores and minging food stalls. At the museum we saw tankers, planes, bombs and viet kong traps.. Next stop the literature museum which was stunning: hedges, funny animal hedges, big pools, lakes, temples, statues… beautiful! By 3:30pm we were starving and walked to go find some authentic Vietnamese food and ended up stumbling upon the most beautiful KFC I've ever seen... fish, salad and pita bread, with some potato and gravy (oh ps I introduced Siobhan and Liam to potato and gravy weird huh poor kids). After a quick play on the indoor kids play ground we headed back to our hostel for a beer and a chill out. Rik and Liam decided to go off on a snake night which consists of snake blood, saki and snake meat…whereas Siobhan and I decided to opt out on a big night and head for some wee comforts (the irish in me J).. MMM Vietnam is influenced heavily by the French and we found a beautiful dimly lit restaurant (so French it's ridiculous).. I ordered rolled sea bass in orange sauce, with mashed potatoes and vegetables, whereas Siobhan ate sea bass in a mixed chilli sauce with rice.. ABSOLUTEY AMAZING yum yum yum! Oh don't forget the wine. We shared a delicious bottle of Argentinean wine and finished the night with really yummy tiramisu and an espresso.. it was so worth the lash out, although the total between the 2 of us was only $60. So worth it… On the way home, miserable, cold and rainy we found a little store found a $4 bottle of red called Vang Dalat (a Vietnamese bottle of wine) and came up to our room and chilled out with our new friend Etienne from Quebec and chatted until the shocking wine was gone and our eyes were droopy. What a day! Welcome to Vietnam b****es J