Hanoi

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Hanoi has been busy! The city is always hectic, with People, bikes, cars and shops EVERYWERE! So far we have stayed in the old quarter which is the oldest part of the city and seems so be the busiest.... Or at least it seems that way. After a day of walking around it appears the city is actually very laid back with people sitting by the side of the road socialising a lot of the time and the chaos of the roads gives a false impression. Learning how to cross the roads is 1st on the list of things to do in Hanoi and requires a degree of bravery rarely used anywhere else.

The Ho Chi Minh Complex was an odd experience ... queuing round the block and then filing in an orderly procession to his Mausoleum, where he is in a quiet, peaceful and cool room but with thousands of people shuffling past to see his embalmed corpse every day! Probably not what the man imagined would happen when he requested to be cremated.

We have also been on a boat trip where we were rowed along the Perfume river through limestone mountains, very similar to Guilin in China, to a mountain that had a large buddhist pagoda and a smaller temple at the top which was in a huge cave. An odd point was when our guide seemed intent on squeezing all 14 of us onto 2 small tables in a restaurant with around 200 more empty seats.

So far we have seen a: Centipede, spider, woodlouse and grass-hopper.... except 8 timesbigger than usual.

Tomorrow we are off on a 3 day trip to Halong bay with cousin Daniel, where we will go on a cruise and stay on one of the islands, which should be beautiful.

Watch this space...

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