The Journey begins!

31st October I drop my car off for safe storage in Wrexham at my brother Adrians and catcha train from Chester to Londo. All goes well until I try and use the Piccadily line to get to Heathrow. London Underground apparently carry out a lot of major maintenance work over most weekends and the Piccadily line was chaos - overcorwded platforms and no trains! I baled out at Leicester Sq and wandered around until I found a taxi to Heathrow. Driver was a nice bloke who had visited Thailand a lot to see his Sister and her husband who had built a house nr Phuket 30 years ago for 11,000GBP and just it and the land for 11 million!!! He was certain I was going to enjoy myself and agreed that with the diet and walking I would end up a lot thinner than I am now!!! Let's see - I'm 14stone 3pouds now.
Stayed at the Heathrow Hilton for 2 nights - absolutley brilliant hotel with staff that know how to deliver unobtrusive customer service - they are brilliant at it. Couldn't fault the place.
Anyway, after having too many beers, as usual, with Darius, Joe and James in Hammersmith I finally got 4 houirs sleep before packing my rucksack and setting off for terminal 3.
Check in no problem and fears about excess baggage were totally unfounded.
The plane was a monster A380 airbus - makes a Jumbo look small! Great comfort in Economy class, no problems with leg room and sat next to a retired English couple who lived in Australia - they were seasoned flyers and said Singapore Airlines were the best of all! They also pointed outnthat all the booze was free - Happy Days! Flight took 13 hours to get to Singapore and then used the free internet at Changi to send a few quick I'm ok emails and then 3,25 hours to Hanoi.

3rd November - arrived in Hanoi on time at 13:30 but took ages to get through customs and collect baggage. The pre arranged taxi was waiting as promised and off we went.

Thu Giang Guest house is in a quiet side street in the Old Quarter of Hanoi- cheap and cheerful and full of backpackers like me. Dropped bags off and went for a wander and encountered the traffic!! They drive like lunatics here, weaving in and out, horns beeping all the time but amazingly no crashes and no one gets hurt. I haven't worked out the logic or the rules yet but once you accept that no one is actually going to run you over crossing the road gets easy! It is totally terrifying and bewildering the first few times!

I wandered into a market and got mugged buy some extremely persistent T-Shirt sellers - buy from 1 and they all surround you selling fans, bracelets, more T-Shirts!! One followed me to a bar I took refuge in and lie in wait. An hour later just when I thought it was safe she pounced from behind as I left - I now own 5 T-shirts! Lesson learned. I then tried to get back to the guesthouse down narrow streets and unfamiliar signs in a language I couldn't understand after a 4 beers and got totally lost!
In the end I hailed a cyclo driver who took me the long way round and totally ripped me off $40 US - serves me right for not agreeing the price up front! Won't make that mistake again - the newt day I got a taxi 3 times the distance and the fare was about $3!!!

The people here are very friendly and kind - always asking if you would like them to help you - but just bear in mind this usually involves them helping themselves by over charging you!

I've spent far more than I thought I would so far but have learnt not to be such a soft touch. Better learn these lessons sooner rather than later.

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Part of trip: Jungles and Chillies

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