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First flight leaving Gold Coast ended up being nearly an hour late so we were both getting pretty tired by the time we boarded at 10.30. Our seats weren't too bad - at the front of the section so plenty of legroom - but narrow but not too bad. We got a bit of broken sleep through the night.
We got to KL ok after about 8.5 hrs and because we were late leaving we only had an hour to transfer over. The new airport at KLIA2 is massive but we found our way to the new gate and the next flight to Hanoi which was about 2.5 hrs.
Somewhere in the transfer I managed to lose my hoodie which was the only long
sleeved thing I bought which was a bit annoying so going to have to find something here before we head to Halong Bay on Monday .
We got picked up by the hotel driver and soon found ourselves on a hour long drive back through the utter chaos of what traffic is like in Hanoi which Lacey tells me is mild compared to Ho Chi Minh . There are no road rules and traffic just go goes where it likes. It's scary s*** watching it !!! And as we found out later you have to walk across the streets through it and no one stops. Should have packed the Valium !!! The old heart was racing in a few spots I can tell you.
Anyway we got to the hotel and they were really nice and helpful. The room is not huge but clean and pleasant.
After a bit of rest we headed out to have lunch and explore. Found the lake and visited the red bridge and pagoda . Then found the water puppet theatre opposite the lake and booked tickets for later. We still had a few hours to kill so we found our way to the Hao Lo Prison aka Hanoi Hilton. Only had to ask for directions once. Amazing and scary place it would have been in its day. Lot of torture and brutality there judging from the displays .
After there we headed back for a drink next to the water puppet show place. It's fairly humid here so we were ready to sit down and rest for awhile in the show. It was pretty good but we find Vietnamese music to be relaxing and combined with lack of sleep I think I nodded off a bit.
We had dinner up on a balcony of this restaurant on the 5 th floor overlooking the main intersection of the lake and Old Quarter which gave us a birds eye view of just how freakin' ridiculous the traffic is but the crazy thing is it works!!! How you can just walk out into the traffic and not get smashed by a bike or car I don't know . Though finding the cars don't like giving way to you as much as bikes do. We just need to watch and we be really alert when we do it.
Dinner was quite nice and cheap too. Anyway headed back home to sort out the day. Pats having trouble with her Facebook if anyone is wondering why you haven't heard from her.
Anyway a good first day and introduction to Vietnam .
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