Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Sa Pa

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We landed in Hanoi airport at about 4pm. We'd booked a hostel over the internet and the owner, David, arranged a free taxi to pick us up, which was great.

We were staying at A-Z Queen's Hostel in the Old Quarter. When we checked in, David's sister was on reception and she made us cup of tea - lovely! We started to browse through tour brochures in reception, then she said we could take the information up to our room to have a good read. Thank God! When we came back down, David had arrived and it was like being hit by a tornado!! He talked non-stop, at a million miles an hour, flying through his sales pitch. He came across as a bit shifty and can only be described as a Vietnamese Del-boy. He asked how many days we would spend in Vietnam (30), then started to list the days and plan each one for us. Woah!! We were glad we'd had had time to go through the brochures at leisure and decide what we wanted to do because he didn't allow for any thinking time. Obviously a ploy to get you to hand over your cash before you know what you're doing. We saw him in action with other newcomers after that and every one of them looked overwhelmed!!

While we were deliberating signing up, a group of men from Denmark walked into the hostel, having just returned from Halong Bay. They told us they'd had a fantastic time and backed up David's claims of, "I give you good service".

We booked 2 trips through David - 1 to Halong Bay and the other to Sa Pa.

Trips booked and enormous wads of Dong (Vietnamese currency) parted with, we ventured out to dinner. We found a nice place near the hostel called 'Casablanca'. They had a whole page of their menu dedicated to 'dog food'. You could have such Vietnamese delicacies as 'stir fried dog with pineapple'. For all our dog-loving friends and family, you'll be glad to hear we gave the dog a miss. Wish we'd gone vegetarian though, as the whole meal was spent wondering if the beef might really be dog!!

We walked off dinner by strolling round Hoan Kiem Lake, said to be the heart of the Hanoi. The motorbike traffic was CRAZY! It was a terrifying experience crossing the road! We had thought China was bad - it has nothing on Hanoi! Orla instantly sensed she wasn't going to like Hanoi but was hoping to feel differently in the daylight.

Back at the hostel, we wanted to use the internet and were merrily typing emails. It was about 11pm when a member of staff started turning off all the lights in reception, except for 1 above the computers. We took the hint and finished our emails off quickly. When we turned around to leave, we spotted the worker had bedded down on the floor for the night, wearing just his jeans and lying on a blanket. That was where he had to sleep!! We couldn't imagine anyone in England having to do that at their work.


The next morning (Tuesday 7th Nov), we wanted to check some of the details of the trips we'd booked at the hostel. David's sister was on reception so we asked her a couple of questions. Next thing, a man's voice came from somewhere. We peeped over the reception desk and David was there, sleeping on the floor! This seemed to be the done thing in Vietnam.

We decided to do the Old Quarter walking tour that we'd read about in the hostel's Lonely Planet. The shops in this area were grouped by type so we wandered down 'shoes' street, 'pots and pans' street, 'sweet' street, 'clothes' street, 'toy' street and 'decorations' street. Makes shopping easy but not sure how they can compete when they all sell the same stuff!! The streets were so narrow, crowded and suffocating. There were motorbikes parked all over the footpaths which forces you to dice with death by walking in the road. Orla wasn't liking Hanoi much more than the previous night.

We had lunch in - you guessed it - 'cafe' street, sitting upstairs on a balcony. It was nice to get away from the bustle and noise from below. We sat watching Hanoi life pass by and hawkers selling conicle hats from their bicycles. We also looked in awe at the electrical wiring providing power in the streets, it was a spiders' web. Pete Thornton - hope you're doing a better job on your house renovations!!

Next stop was 'silk' street. We really didn't plan to buy clothes in Vietnam although everyone told us how tempting it would be. And they were right, we couldn't resist! We've only been in Vietnam a day - it doesn't bode well for our travelling budget! Orla got some wrap-around trousers and Steve bought 2 shirts, one for his Dad's birthday. We'd manage to fit them in our backpacks somehow!!

That night, we found a 'bia hoi' to drink in - a cheap place selling glasses of beer for 2000 dong (that's about 6p!!!) For the lads of HLS, Steve finally found a pint for less than 10p! We met some really nice people - Bryan from Canada, Jik from Thailand and Vince the Ozzie - and had a really good night.

We haven't given you a toilet story for a while (and, would you believe, we've had requests!!) The bia hoi had 'pay as you go' toilets - 500 dong to use a vile, hole in the ground that looked like it never gets cleaned, had no loo roll and no light. Orla had to leave the door ajar to let some street-lighting in and sing so no-one would approach. Julie - thought you'd like that tale!


We were picked up at 8.30 the next morning for our trip to Halong Bay. There were about 15 in the group, including Paul (Australian), Yelena (Latvian), Belinda (another Australian), Jerry and Jessica from Sweden and the rest of the group were Germans, who we didn't really get to know. It took 3 hours by minibus to get there but our guide, Hangs (Tom Hanks, as he is nicknamed) kept us occupied with information about Vietnam. We passed lots of rice fields with tombs in the middle. Hangs explained that when people die, they are buried for a year, then the bones dug up and re-buried in their family's tomb, so they are always with their home. Hangs then told us he would sing us a traditional Vietnamese song. "I am not a very good singer so I hope you won't leave the bus", he said. Then he started. The voice of an angel!! We were all amazed! Then he sang another song. In fact, we couldn't stop him singing for the rest of the trip. Simon Cowell, we have found you your next Pop Idol!! Hangs would finish every song with, "That's my song. You can clap now"!!!

We boarded the boat in time for lunch but things didn't start too well. The bay was packed with tour boats so we had to clamber across 3 boats to get to ours, it was very awkward. One of the German men cracked his head on the upper deck when trying to climb aboard. The sound was terrible and he got a really bad cut. It also knocked his prescription sunglasses off and into the sea. The guy was lucky not to be concussed! Safety doesn't seem to get much consideration in Asia but we had our first aid kit so we gave the man some antiseptic and plasters. Unfortunately, the antiseptic was bright yellow spray so the poor guy looked like he had some nasty infection!!

Lunch was good and we started to get to know our companions. Once the boat sailed out into the bay, we quickly lost sight of the other tour boats and felt like we were the only ones out there. The limestone karst scenery really was beautiful. The boat took us to 2 different caves - Magic Cave and Amazing Cave - then there was time for swimming in the sea. Some of the group jumped from the roof of the boat. Not Orla (no way!!) but Steve being Steve lead the way, shouting, "Oh my God!" as he plunged the 5 or so metres to the sea. Next up was Hangs. He yelled, "Oh my Buddha!" as he fell towards the water!!

David from A-Z had convinced us to book the 'deluxe' boat. We'd enquired about the standard boat and he said, "No good". We're glad we took his advice. The boat was ok but if we'd been really expecting luxury, we'd have had a nasty shock! We had a corner bedroom, so lots of windows which was nice, and an ensuite bathroom (cold shower, obviously!). Unfortunately, the u-bend on the sink wasn't actually attached so we got wet feet everytime we used it! Still, it was much better than the boat staff had - they had to sleep on chairs and on the floor in the small dining area!!

That night, our boat pulled into a 'boat campsite' - an area designated by the authorities for tour boats to spend the night. It was like a boat city, but amazingly quiet. Hangs arranged our evening entertainment - a 'music party' which involved each person having to sing a song from their country. We cringed - but Hangs was in his element! He even dressed up in traditional dress for the occasion! Orla's rendition of 'Streets of London' won joint 1st prize with Belinda's 'Waltzing Matilda'. The prize involved closing their eyes while Steve had to put on a scary mask to frighten them!! Perhaps slightly better than the 2nd prize won by the Germans - a rubber chicken which popped out an egg when you squeezed it!! Hangs won a friend forever when he told Orla she was better than Britney Spears!! And Steve says she can't sing - shows what he knows!!


The next day, we got up at 6.15 to see the sunrise. Orla has never known as many early mornings as since we started travelling!!

After breakfast, the plan was to go kayaking for a couple of hours. We wondered where the kayaks were going to come from as there were none on the boat. The boat sailed close to a floating village and next thing, a lady from the village paddled out in a small boat, towing a trail of kayaks behind her. Then some other small boats containing drinks, fruit, snacks, appeared alongside ours, trying to sell their wares. We saw several floating villages while we sailed around Halong Bay. They live by fishing (and selling snacks to tourists!) and have to get drinking water delivered to them by boat. The kids have to catch a boat to school! Not sure we would fancy that lifestyle.

The tandem kayaking was really good fun and we managed not to argue too much! Less than on our kayaking trip in Australia anyway!

We visited 2 small caves, including 1 with a tiny entrace. We had to lie down in the kayak to fit through the entrance! Once inside, we could hear bats but it was lovely. The water in the cave was clear and shallow but it felt really humid in there.

After the kayaking, our boat took us to a secluded beach for lunch, then we did a 3-hour trek through Cat Ba National Park. It was a lovely walk. We stopped half-way, in the middle of nowhere, to buy tea and an orange from a local farmer. The farmer and his wife, in their 80s, live miles from anyone! Unfortunately, the wife had gone away for the day but Hangs said she liked it when tourists called by as it meant she got to see other people. Must be a lonely life most of the time. As we left the farmer, Hangs found us some monkey nuts growing in his field and hacked down some sugar-cane for us to try. Hope the farmer didn't mind!

Back on the Santa Maria, we sailed onto Cat Ba Island and checked into Cat Ba Plaza Hotel for the night - very nice! Hangs took us to dinner in town and we decided to try the honey wine (with bits of wax in!) Other options were bird wine (with whole birds in it!), lizard wine, or worm wine (yes, you could see all these things floating in the wine jars) but we were too cowardly to try them. (They looked horrible! Bird wine??!!?) The honey wine was ok - 45 per cent proof - so one tipple was enough. Plus picking out those bits of wax was a little unpleasant.

After dinner, Hangs took us to a karaoke bar. For his benefit rather than ours, we're sure! Hangs is a bit of a romantic so got up to perform a beautiful balad. He started to sing when a drunk, local man jumped up to join him. Unfortunately, his voice was not too good. Hangs got very frustrated and attempted to sing the same song a further 4 times, each time interrupted by the happy drunk, oblivious to Hangs' glares. Hangs eventually sat down in a huff and said, "He is very impolite". It was really funny though!

We were collected by a minibus at the karaoke bar and taken back to the hotel. Once there, Hangs got us all to sit on the doorstep and listen attentively as he finally got to sing his song uninterrupted. He was happy. At the end, he called out, "I love you all. You can clap now and you can hug me". We laughed so much! He really is a boy-band star in the making!!


The next morning, it was time to cruise back to Halong City. We got on the boat and everyone rushed to the deck to do a spot of sunbathing. Half an hour later, we all dashed downstairs to get in the shade. It was soooo hot!

En route to Halong City, we had to drop Hangs off on another boat, to join a different tour group. Before he left us he said, "Excuse me everybody! This is my goodbye song". At the end, "You can clap now. Don't cry!" He was such a sweet, funny character - he absolutely made the trip.

Back on dry-land, we had lunch in a lovely restaurant and were then driven back to Hanoi and A-Z Queen's Hostel. They were full but David put us up in Central Stars hotel next door, which he also runs. Turned out, he had 6 hotels in Hanoi. He's only about 30 years old so not doing too badly for himself.

We had booked tickets for the water puppet show that evening - famous in Vietnam. What a funny experience! It was like pantomime with puppets! There were various little stories, all involving Vietnamese traditional life such as 'farmer caring for ducks', 'local people fishing' but all involved lots of puppets thrashing about in the water to music. It was quite surreal but very enjoyable.


The following day, we finally got a lie-in! We just about managed to check-out of Central Stars by the noon deadline and went back next door to A-Z for breakfast. We then wandered to the post office to send home our Hong Kong beer steins. In SE Asia, you take your items to the post office and have them wrapped there but the post office lady wouldn't accept our steins as she didn't have any padding. She told us to go and buy a towel and gave us an address for somewhere miles away. Probably a relative she wanted to get us to buy from!! We walked out of the post office and spotted some cardboard dumped in the street so nabbed that, starting to try and work out how we could protect our steins. Next thing, a shoe shop owner spotted us and rushed out with a shoe box for us, then another lady in a newsagents gave us some free newspapers from the day before. They didn't even want any money, which is amazing in Vietnam! Most the time, people bug you all the time for your money and try to overcharge you. They practically want to charge you for breathing! This was the first example of generosity we experienced in Vietnam, which was in complete contrast to China.

Back at the post office, the lady wasn't too happy we hadn't bought a towel in the shop she'd recommened, but she took our parcel just the same. Afterwards, we got distracted by more clothes shopping. We ended up in a silk tailors with really friendly, unpushy staff (another rarity in Hanoi) and before we knew it, had each ordered made-to-measure suits and Orla had also bought 2 tops. It was so cheap, it seemed rude not to!!

After that, we had to get organised for our trip to Sa Pa. We were catching the overnight sleeper that evening. One of David's brothers (he has loads of them!) took us to the train station along with an American man. There were no platforms at the station and we just walked across the tracks. While he showed the American to his train, he told us to "wait here". We looked around to find our waiting point was in the path of a train ready to depart. Orla was not impressed with the railway safety!!

Our soft sleeper was very nice with lots of wood panelling and a table light. We were sharing with 2 Danishmen who were very nice and setting up tours from Denmark to Vietnam. They wanted to test out what they were going to sell to other people! Unfortunately, 1 of them had a cold and spent the night coughing and snuffling. Hmmmmm - luckily we didn't catch it.

We were woken at 5.45 by the trolley dollie and arrived in Lao Cai at 6.15. A guide met us and put us on a bus heading for Sa Pa. An hour later, we were sitting having breakfast at the Royal View Hotel, which had lovely views of the countryside (although it was quite foggy). It was really plush so we decided Del-boy David probably wasn't too much of a dodgy geezer afterall! While we were eating, our guide for the next few days appeared and introduced herself. Her name was Lan and she was from the Black H'mong hill tribe. She said she was 17 but looked about 15 and was MAD! She was tiny, giggly, very tactile and acted like a kid. She was also very nice. She liked flirting with the boys and was constantly getting texts on her mobile from boys wanting to be her boyfriend. She said 2 boys had already asked to marry her. In her tradition, the boy has to bring a chicken to her parents and if they kill it, it's a sign of acceptance of the marriage proposal. She said she had to shout, "No!" to stop them killing 1 chicken and she'd left her village to avoid the other boy!! She said girls get married very young and some of her friends had 2-year old children already. She didn't want to get married until her mid-twenties though. She earned a good wage as a tour guide (in comparison with other work) and she didn't want her husband taking all her money. Sensible girl! Her English was pretty good but, like most of the people in Sa Pa that know English, she had just learnt it by speaking with tourists! Amazing! There were younger girls clammering to speak to tourists when they got off the buses so we imagined they were also trying to learn (and sell handicrafts). The standard lines were, "Hello. What is your name? Where do you come from? Do you have any brothers and sisters?"

Lan has 6 brothers and 1 sister and, at 17, is already a great-aunt!!

We thought we were going to be staying at a hill tribe village that evening, on a homestay, and spending the 2nd night in the hotel but there was a change of plan. There was no real explanation at the time but we've quickly learned to take it as it comes and not worry to much when you're backpacking around. Things usually work out ok. We later heard from another traveller it was because it was market day, and many people were in the towns rather than at their villages.

Instead, Lan took us on a walk to Cat Cat village, inhabited by the Black H'mong tribe. The village was really near Sa Pa town but it was very quiet. The main traffic down the footpath to the village was a pig with her piglets!! We got to see a local woman using plant colouring to dye hemp material blue, for making her Black H'mong clothing. We pointed out to Lan that they should be called Blue H'mong not Black H'mong. She laughed. She pointed out to us that many of the women have blue hands from dying their clothes. Lan took us into a house and showed us a weaving loom. There were lots of young children in the house, all looking very grubby. One little one must have had a cold and had snot all over his face. YUK!!!

We walked on to a nice waterfall and then back through Sa Pa market. There were lots of tiny tribal women buying and selling. Orla bought 2 little skirts for her nieces, Maia and Grace and Lan told her she had managed to haggle to the locals price - well-chuffed!!

Back at the Royal View Hotel, we settled into our posh room then had a lovely lunch on the hotel balcony, overlooking the valley. We had the afternoon free for 'blogging' but then had a bit of a grotty meal in the hotel that evening.


We both knew about that meal the next day, with slightly dodgy tummies. We've since met another guy who stayed at the same hotel and had a similar experience. Just goes to show posh places aren't always as good as they seem.

Thankfully, we weren't too bad and, after breakfast, started our walk to Lao Cai village where we stopped for lunch. No wonder we haven't lost any weight yet!! We were accompanied the whole way by another little girl, also called Lan, who was 10 years old. We asked our guide about school and she said little Lan had finished at 10 years old. Some families want their children to work in their fields (or to sell to tourists). She was a real little cutie but her aim was to get us to buy souvenirs from her. She kept saying, 'Later, you buy from me". Orla explained we didn't want to buy anything which she said was ok, but then big - well, bigger - Lan, said she would be crying later! Talk about making you feel guilty! That's the trouble in Vietnam - everyone thinks you have money to burn! The scenery around Sa Pa was beautiful but the tribal ladies and kids constantly barage you to buy bracelets, shirts, bags, etc. It was hard to get a minute's peace to enjoy the tranquility of the countryside. We stopped at a little shop to buy a drink. There were other tourists there and twice as many hawkers. One foreigner made the fatal mistake of looking at a bracelet. That was it. Next thing she was surrounded by all the sellers, shoving bracelets in her face and saying, "Buy from me!" She looked panic-striken. In the end, her guide had to move in and pull her out of the crowd. She didn't buy anything after that.

We walked onto Ta Van village, pestered the entire way by hawkers. Ta Van is the home of people from the Green Zhao tribe and Lan took us to our homestay. Orla asked Lan what present we should bring. Our guide book had suggested fruit but that seemed an odd gift as fruit is in abundance in Vietnam. Lan said, "Fruit crazy. Everybody grow fruit." Stupid guide book. She dispelled another guide book myth when Orla asked her about exposing too much flesh. She told us they all wear sleeveless tops in summer. She said people don't understand western girls in bikinis - not that they think they are not nice girls, just because they think they're crazy! The women in Vietnam want to stay white-skinned and hide their flesh and western women are bearing all!

We asked Lan if the different tribes get along and she said yes, but there was definitely no inter-marrying. Lan and our hostess Cw (said 'Q') obviously got on very well and Cw treated Lan like her daughter, giving her big hugs and laughing at her madness and hot temper! Cw had 2 children, a boy and a girl who were still at school when we arrived. Her husband was up in the mountains, cutting down firewood for winter, and wouldn't be back until later.

We weren't Cw's only guests that evening. There was another, male, guide there with 3 travellers: Anne, a pediatric doctor from America who had been doing some voluntary work in a hospital, and Jose and Victoria, a lovely couple from Spain. Anne's work experiences were interesting. She found some things were very advanced and then in other areas, they didn't even have basic equipment. Lan talked about babies dying and said it happens all the time! We imagine that's why many of the tribal women have such large families.

We had a look around the village, trying to dodge the hawker ladies waiting to pounce on us, and Steve had a game of pool outside a villager's house, with the other tour guide. They played Vietnam rules where you have to pot the balls in number order and add the scores together. First to 53 won. Steve lost!

Back at Cw's home, we witnessed dinner being prepared. The male tour guide walked passed us with a live duck in his hands, going round the back of the house. A few minutes later, the dead duck's blood was in a bowl in the kitchen and the duck was being plucked. Think that's the freshest meat we've ever eaten!!

Dinner was delicious! Cw's kitchen was so basic with just a open fire and few pots, yet she conjured up a feast! There was loads of food (including boiled duck's blood but we didn't fancy that) and then the rice wine started to flow. Cw kept proposing toasts (in Vietnamese as she didn't speak any English) which ended in the Vietnamese for 'cheers' - "Yo" - which we had to shout at the top of our voices. She had other Vietnamese guests staying for dinner that night and Lan managed to have an argument with 1 of the ladies. She thought the middle-aged lady was very loud so told her to be quiet in the morning and not wake the foreigners. The woman got cross, telling Lan she was very rude and a row ensued. Luckily, we were oblivious to it all (too busy necking the rice wine) until Lan got in a huge huff and babbled on in irate, broken English, trying to tell us about it. We had to get her to repeat the story 3 times until we could grasp what had happened. She kept saying, "I hate her. I very, very hate her!" She's a little hot-head!

Steve taught Lan and the other guide to play 'cheat' at cards but unfortunately, Lan proved to be much better at the game than her teacher. Steve lost every game! Hanging his head in shame, we retired to bed, upstairs in Cw's home. We had mattresses, blankets (which didn't feel very clean so Orla was glad of her sleeping bag liner) and mosquito nets. We slept like a log. That might have had something to do with the rice wine though....!


We had a nice lie-in on the 14th but woke up to hear rain pouring down outside. We hoped we were dreaming but unfortunately not. Disaster. We hadn't brought any wet weather gear, leaving it all in the hostel in Hanoi. The male tour guide cooked us a zillion pancakes for breakfast - the best we've ever tasted - and banished another guide book myth about leaving some food on our plates as a sign of politeness. He said if we did that, he thought we didn't like his food. He also said we could eat with whichever hand we liked and all this business about eating with your left hand being offensive was rubbish! That was good news for us 2 lefties!! We watched the rain falling outside and, by some miracle, it stopped moments before we were due to set off trekking! Hooray!!

The rain might have stopped but the ground was really slippery. Three little hawker ladies immediately started to follow us and were over the moon when Orla slipped into a paddy field, filling one boot with mud. It meant they could offer their escort services for a small fee. Orla grudgingly let them help her at first but was then eternally grateful. We had to walk up and down steep, muddy paths, sliding all over the place. The little ladies, with their tiny feet, raced along merrily, pulling Orla behind them. Steve nearly found himself left behind, sliding down the hill top. Half way through the walk, Orla realised one of her helpers was pregnant. She enquired about the baby via Lan. The little lady got all shy about Orla asking and making a fuss - probably because popping out babies seems no big deal to them. She was 6 months pregnant. These tiny ladies looked so light, Orla was worried that if she slipped, she was taking them all down with her. No need to worry. These ladies are as strong as oxes and had an iron grip!

We got to Giang Ta Chai village where we had a lovely lunch prepared by Lan. Some little girls tried to sell us souvenirs again but miraculously, only tried once then left us alone to eat our meal. After lunch, we went for a walk down to the river. For a rare moment, no one followed us. We don't know where they had all gone but it was absolute bliss! We got to sit by the river and take in the lovely views with no-one talking to us. Really nice.

From there, we made our way back up to the main road where a jeep was collecting us to take us back to Sa Pa. At the top of the hill, there were lots of young girls goading Orla to play 'tig' with them. It was really nice to meet some kids that weren't trying to sell us anything and just wanted to play!! There was a slight hold-up with our jeep arriving to collect us. A JCB on the back of a truck was blocking the entire road. The road had hairpin bends around the mountain and the truck was struggling to manoeuvre around them. After about a 23-point turn, it managed to free itself, added by a little man standing on top of the JCB, lifting the overhead electrical wires out of the way! Conquering this bend was enough to let our jeep through. We jumped in and were luckily heading the opposite direction, just as the truck was negotiating the next turn in the road. Lan said it probably took a few hours to get that far from town - all of about a 20 minute journey in the jeep.

Back at Sa Pa, we went for a walk around town and met a little entrepeneur - a boy of about 12 with pretty good English (learned from tourists, of course) who tried to sell us postcards. We refused but he was obviously looking for his next business opportunity and offered to clean our muddy walking boots for us. We couldn't resist that so agreed the price while he led us into a shop where we could wait. Then he disappeared. With our boots! Two men from the shop then told us they could give us a foot massage while we waiting - our young boy was no fool!! We didn't feel anyone deserved to go near our feet at that point so declined and were relieved when our boots reappeared 10 minutes later, looking new. Well, almost!

We had dinner, a hotpot dinner, at the Hill Station restaurant which was lovely. We're getting into the hotpot thing, even if you do end up paying a restaurant then cooking it yourself!! Then at 18:30, it was back on a bus heading for the train station. It was dark and foggy so we weren't looking forward to driving down the mountainous road with a Vietnamese bus driver but everything seemed ok (or maybe it was just that we couldn't see out the windows!!)

Back on the train, there was no sign of the plush wood panelling that we'd had on our outward journey. In fact, the carriage was pretty grotty and seemed more like hard sleeper. We were sharing with a Spanish couple who also thought they'd got on the wrong train and were looking for their soft berth. Oh well. The journey was fine, we got as much sleep as you ever can on a train, but we were due into Hanoi at 4.30am! Ugh! At least Del-boy David had told us someone would pick us up and bring us back to his hostel, where we would be able to go back to bed, all included as part of the price. "No problem," he had said, "Everything very easy. Room free for you to sleep, have shower. I give you good service."


4.30. No pick-up. We walked around the station for half an hour looking for anyone who looked like they might be there to meet us, being hassled the whole time by motorbike and taxi drivers. At 5, we realised it was time to give up and jumped into a taxi bound for A-Z, showing him the hotel card which had the address and a map. After 20 minutes, the driver pulled up in a dark street, outside a building that had shutters pulled down and was in total darkness. He gestured for us to get out. We were so relieved we'd been to A-Z before as we were able to tell him we were at the wrong place. He disagreed so we had a bit of a row about it, refusing to get out of the car. God knows where he'd taken us! Anyway, we were on the move again a few minutes later, with Steve directing him. We weren't quite sure if he made a genuine mistake or if this was yet another scam. Still, when it's pushing 5.30 in the morning and you're tired, you're not really in the mood for being messed around.

We got to A-Z and that was also in darkness but we could see David and his 3 brothers sleeping on the floor just inside the doors. Not in the mood for sympathising, we hammered on the door. No one moved. Hammered a bit more. David shoved 1 of his brothers to get up. That brother shoved another 1, who ignored him. A bit more hammering on the door and a bit more shoving of brothers and 1 of them got up. He unlocked the door for us then slumped back down on the floor. We walked in and David told us to have a seat. We sat, no one else moved. Orla asked, "Can we have the key for our room?". David replied, "No room. You wait 1 hour for people go to Halong Bay." We knew, having done the Halong trip, that no one would leave until 8.30 - 3 hours away! "But what are we supposed to do for 3 hours??" David said, "I'm tired. Go and get a drink." Steve didn't need to react. Orla got MAD! If she wasn't getting any sleep, David and the brothers weren't going to either. She ranted about there being no pick-up, having to pay for the taxi, there being no room, being tired, wanting to sleep, all David's empty promises, rant, rant, rant. In the end, she asked him if there was a room we could have in his hotel next door. "Oh yes", he said and kicked one of the brothers, who had to get up and take us back to Central Stars. We had a bed and calm fell across Hanoi.

To give David his due, when we got up later and went back to A-Z, he apologised, saying he'd been half-asleep when we arrived and gave us the money back for the taxi. He wasn't so dodgy afterall.

We spent the afternoon looking around Hanoi, checking out the Opera House, collecting and posting the suits we'd had made (we'll be looking pretty damn hot when we get back to work next year!). We stopped for a drink in a cafe near Sofitel Hotel, where George Bush was due to stay 2 days later. There was lots of security, as you'd expect, and signs all over the cafe saying it would be closed while he was staying nearby. We wondered if the Vietnamese business owners get any compensation for the disruption or if they're just expected to accept it? Some of these people really couldn't afford to miss a day's income.

Lunch was at the Zig-Zag where more people tried to rip us off. The waiter brought Steve the wrong drink. He told the waiter who replaced it with the correct drink, then they tried to bill us for it. When we refused to pay for it, 3 members of staff gathered around us. The 1 who could speak the most English said he understood and we didn't need to pay for the drink. Excellent. We gave him the money we owed and got up to leave but then told us they had forgotten to add a service charge, so we must pay that instead. There was no mention of a service charge on any of their literature and he lamely said, "The waiter must have forgotten to tell you." We were really annoyed at the blatant attempt to con us, we gave them the money we thought we owed and stormed out and huffed down the street.

We had some good times in Hanoi but overall, the city wasn't an enjoyable place. We felt constantly harrassed and conned by people and were glad to be getting on the sleeper to Hue that evening.

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Photos

Welcome to Hanoi!
You have to do the Hanoi quick-step to be able to cross the road!!

An electricians nightmare
How?! Why?!

Its amazing what you can get on the back of your bike!
In Vietnam they haven't discovered trucks yet! Overloading seems to be the norm!

Ha Long Bay
At the start of our cruise

Needle rock
Ha Long Bay - according to our guide this outcrop is predicted to collapse in about 5-10 years.

Well one of has to paddle!!
The kayaking arguments rumble on....

Watch your head!
Entering a cave - Ha Long Bay

80 Year old potato peeler!
This old farmer and his wife lived in the middle of nowhere in Ca Ba National Park.

Our guide - 'Tom Hanks'
Here's the next Ronan Keating!!

Sa Pa
or should we say Lilliput!!!

Coming through!
Decided it was best to get out of his way!

Steve with 2 Lilliputians
Lan and Lan with Steve on our trek to Lao Cai.

Lao Cai village
Little hawkers taking a rest from selling!

You go first!!!
Tricky river crossings trekking Sa Pa area

Homestay at Ta Van
Cw (pronounced 'Q') preparing dinner

Homestay group
With us are Cw and her husband, Ann a doctor from US, Jose and Victoria a lovely Spanish couple, and our guide Lan

Trekking Babe!
A short break to take in the scenery