Hanoi

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We arrived here late Tuesday after long long flights but thankfully hassle free. Miraculously bags were there as well , which having checked them in at Dublin, seems pretty efficient to me.
Strap missing from my bag and looks a bit battered but am not complaining.

The airport is about an hour north of the city and we had a car waiting (cant beat a driver holding up a card with your name on it arriving into unfamiliar territory

As we approached Hanoi I could feel my heart sinking and more significantly my chest tightening with the air pollution. The traffic here is something to behold (and beware) with cars, vans, about a million scooters with masked riders, rickshaws , bikes and (bottom of the pile) pedestrians. Come to think of it no one actually walks about, the locals are on their scooters or sitting outside their wee shops, eating drinking, washing, cooking. Every household (especially in the Old Quarter where we are staying) seems to run a cottage industry with cooking being number one.

Child size plastic tables and chairs are set up with wok and gas ring and away they go serving up bowls of pho-bo rice noodle soup with either pork or chicken. Washed down with the local Bia Hoi fresh beer brewed daily

So hanging on to my guide book and Karen we ventured forth into the maze of tiny streets confronted an army of scooters at each intersection and guess what, Karen turned our to be the road crossing deva! Whilst I would be quaking and shaking on the edge of the kerb she would just launch forth into the traffic and somehow with the traffic dodging around she would end up on the other side totally unfazed,with me still shaking beside her. The times I lost my hold and got left behind were a disaster involving up to five minutes as I plucked up courage to attempt to cross.. Well to be fair I have improved a little, the theory seems to be, look out for the cars and the scooters look out for you

So a week has passed. We went on tour up to the beautiful Halong Bay, cruised through the hundreds of limestone pinnacles emerging from the sea and ate wonderful food. Down side we anchored up for the night beside party boat going boom, boom trance music into the wee hours

Sunday we visited Perfume Pergoda travelling on coach, being rowed up river into the forests and cable car up high into mountains to a wee settlement . There we walked down hundreds of steps deep into the Earth to a large large cave, a place of pilgrimage, occupied by monks for hundreds of years and now a feast of a Temple with statues, gongs, chanting, incense.



Last day in Hanoi now and we have visited Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and stilt house. Gazed on the Thousand-eyed, Thousand-armed Goddess of Compassion, visited museums, the Hanoi Hilton, the infamous prison (well Karen visited it not me), ate lots of pho-bo and drunk lots of Hanoi beer, and learned to make Hanoi spring rolls – they are the best

Laos tomorrow and I am looking forward.

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