Day 2!

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Sin jow! (Hello!)
And so day 2 has finished - and i have crossed well over 50 roads without being hit once! Its quite amazing how quickly you get used to it all!
This morning we did a Hanoi tour walk all around the Old Quarter - god knows how far it was but you basically take as long as you want to follow the suggested map - that is if you can work out what street you are on!
Went to a three storey market that was the Melbourne market all stacked up on top of each other with thousands of people, and I have never seen so many massive bags of dried mushrooms and prawns (?!).
You would have had a fit seeing some of the meat lying around on boards of wood on the street - liver, kidneys, you name it - just lying out in the air for the flys to enjoy! On top of that they had mini tanks filled to the brim with live eels, snakes and fish!





Ali and I came back here for a bit of a break around lunch and left the others to catch us up later - we ended up sitting on a little corner for some lunch (20 000dong, about 2 dollars) and people watching for an hour - some pretty awesome photos!
The other girls ended up finding somewhere for a massage - sounds like they had a pretty unique experience and felt they may have been able to teach them a thing or two! Ange had her stomach massaged, Claire had to lay topless for 5min before the lady decided to get a towel, and cath had to tip extra on top of her massage but had no idea how much!
Tonight we wandered around the lake again for dinner - I withdrew 2 million dong from the atm to pay for this tour to Sapa in the mountains next weekend. The docket is pretty funny to look at - 2 000 000!
Will sign out for tonight - meeting with a friends of Ali's for lunch tomorrow - a girl she met in College 2 years ago who is now living and working here - hoping she may have a few tips for us.
Jow nya! (Goodbye)

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Photos

Hanoi Walking Tour - 'turtle temple'
This was the start of our walking tour - a temple in the middle of Hoen Kiem Lake which contains and embalmed tortise! Entry across the bridge and into the temple was 3000d (30c!)

Cath without dong!
Yes - they make you pay for toilet paper here - and poor cath had no dong- the whole 500d (5c) it was going to cost her for a sheet was just to much!

Prawns anyone?
Bags upon bags of dried seafood and mushrooms - we only stood there long enough to take a photo because the smell was rank!