Trains, no plains, and automobiles

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Over the past 5 days we have covered nearly 3000 km's by trains and automobiles. Starting in Qingdao we made our way down to Guanzhou. Down to Shenzhen. Back up to Guangzhou. Over to Nanning. Down to Pingxiang. Across the border, and finally to Hanoi. All in all our trip consisted of 49 hours of train, 4 hours of bus, and 30 mins of the good ol' Tuk - Tuk. Finally we can kick back and start to enjoy our time and relax; or at least try too.

Crossng the border from China to Vietnam was surprisingly simple and straight forward and problem free. Hand over the passport, fill in a couple forms and walk through to the next gate. From crossing the American border on more than one occasion I'm used to the "say one wrong word and your going to have your car ripped apart or the classic cavity search" feeling, so it was no surprise that I was a little nervous about crossng this border. But no problems as I said before and we officially and legally entered Vietnam!

We arrived in Hanoi around 4 pm and were delivered via mini bus to a great youth
hostel. Immediatly we checked in and grabbed a bite to eat trying to replenish our bodies that had not cosumed food for nearly 20 hours (I know , not the smartest but we were occupied and food wasn't the easiest thing to find on trains and mini buses). As we set out on our first venture of the city, you soon realize that Hanoi is infested with motorcycles and mopeds. I know infested sounds, negative but thats the first word that comes to mind. Thousands of bikers rome the streets and it makes crossing the road a tedious task. The key to crossing the street is to walk slow and don't stop. Bikers annticipate where you are moving so that they can swerve inches from your bad impression of a tight rope walker. Concentrating and trying not to think that the next step could possibly be your last step. Sound dangerous? Probably, but one can only assume that these drivers are far more defensive when it comes to driving than at drivers in Canada.

We spent the greater portion of our time in Hanoi walking the hectic streets taking in the beautiful sites and french influenced buildings while eating as much French bread as possible ( not so much Britt but definetly me, Oh do I love bread). We decided to hitch a ride with a one of many motorcylists to a temple which turned out to be a chinese temple. We just can't get enough of China I guess. But before hopping onto the back of this strangers bike we had to settle and haggle a price. We finally agree on 10.000 dong. Fair price, considering there were two people and it was quite far away. Once arriving to the temple his scam then came into effect. As he demands 20,000 from us, saying we agreed on 10,000, I can only stare at him and say, "come on". We had been warned of this scam in lonely planet and we had become victims on our first day in Hanoi. But rather than losing our heads about it we just handed over the money and took it up the ___. Really, we only lost mabey 60 cents and it wasn't worth escalating the situation into anything bigger than it was.

Theres not too much else I can say about Hanoi other than its a city full of life and definetly a must see if you have the chance to see Vietnam! Vietnam is filled with many english speakers and definetly much easier to travel in than China. Although the food is fantastic here and the majority of people are so nice I miss China already.

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Photos

Hanoi
A lake surrounded by the city of Hanoi.

Puppets
These puppets have so much character. I love em'.