Hanoi, Vietnam

---

Hanoi - chopsticks? check. expandable elastic waist pants? check. you're ready to hit the town.

we don't quite know how the vietnamese stay so skinny, especially in a city that has such delicious food being cooked on every street corner. perhaps it's the adrenalin rush you experience everytime you try and cross a road....your life flashes before your eyes as you see hundreds of mopeds screaming towards you. but somehow you manage to get across intact. there is also a myserious lack of canines in this town. call us paranoid. but even that wasn't enough to subdue our appetites - the rule of thumb was if it smelt good, and there were loads of locals digging in, we would be squatting next to them to join them. from the 25c beers to the mysteriously delicious spring rolls wrapped in newspaper, hanoi is the undiscerning food lover's paradise. we had died and gone to culinary heaven with the millions of vietnamese that were already there.• city highlights: a walk around the hoan kiem lake with its legendary turtle tales; a visit to the 1000 year old temple of literature with its ancient stone tablets; the fascinating tour of the hoa lo prison where hundreds of vietnamese revolutionaries were tortured and executed by the french and later, american soldiers were captured, tortured and held during the vietnam war (including senator john mccain who due to his torture there, can't lift his arms above his head - don't go asking him for a high 5).• Accommodation: 5/5 for a brand new hotel in the heart of the old town; the service, breakfast and facilities are impeccable.• Food: after much enthusiastic discussion and tasting and then more tasting, we've come to the conclusion that hanoi rates as one of the top 3 places to eat in all of the places we've visited so far - our stay has included dining at a succulent fish restaurant where that is the only dish they serve from a secret 100 year old recipe so good that it is rated by WSNBC as one of the 10 things to do before you die (we almost wept when we ate the food, it was so good); the best pho we've ever had; an incredible grilled pork dish dipped in lime salt and eaten with chopsticks that couldn't get the slices into our mouths fast enough....the elastic pants never came in so handy!• misc: how many people can you fit onto a moped? well everyone in the family including your gran! we've seen up to 4 people riding these things and they do it very well; you can apparantly also carry a 4 x 4 foot cage filled with live chickens, a 200kg pig, and several thousand bottles of beer on the backs of these two wheelers as well - the vietnamese have a knack for balancing; the friendliness of the locals has been incredible; it's really enhanced our experience in this little town.

---