Hanoi - The Old Quater and Magical Halong Bay

---

City #2:

On Friday me and Gus made the move from Bangkok Thailand to Hanoi Vietnam.

Our cab ride from the airport was hilarious! The Vietnamese really enjoy using their Horns! *Beep!* for "I'm on the road" *Beep! Beep!* says "I see your car ahead of me" *Beep! Beep! Beep!* means "I'm coming" *Beep! Beepity! Beep!*means "Get out of my way" and *Toop Toop!!* hehe this means "Thank you for letting me pass"....crazy!....me and Gus were in histerics...

First thing I notices was Hanoi's abundance of beautiful french architecture - a lot of tall pretty painted houses complete with large open family area's that house mahogany furniture, small tables and chairs and family's reclining/enjoying a meal... sooooo different to the small concrete houses with tin roofs we saw in Bangkok! We met up with Tristan Julie and Dan Friday night and had a beer at a lovely restaurant overlooking the centre of old quater. Lots of people and motorbikes everywhere! On Saturday I had an oportunity to peruse the street markets - lots of interesting and quite confronting sights and smells!! The Vietnamese apear to kill, cut, and eat...everything!

On Saturday we had a day trip to the Magical Ha Long Bay...this place is incredible...it looks like something out of Fantasia...its quite similar to the Thailand Beaches from the movie "The Beach" - hundreds of big rock formations surrounded by crystal blue still water. Someone said it is like the "1200 apostals" hehe - It was so cool! We had our own personal boat to relax on which looked like something out of pirates of the carribean! The boats are all very ancient looking (like a lot of things here). Today we saw the Ho Chi Mihn Mauseleum and tonight we are traveling up North by Train to Sa Pa to see the Hill Tribes.

---