Hanoi'

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The arrival into Hanoi was a lot smoother than Bangkok, though the cheesy Asian music on the flight and the colder temperature (15C) were both a bit of a let down. However, getting 2000000 dong out of the atm was a major plus. First and probably only time of being a millionaire! We were advised by the 'Tourist information' centre, who shamelessly advertised extortionate tours, that the easiest way to the Old Quarter was to grab a minibus. So we jumped in with a non-english speaking Vietnamese man who charged us 40000 dong. We were one of the first in the van and so smelt a rat, but the bus steadily filled and off we went at tremendous speed and with the driver basically leaning on the horn the entire way. This horn action was to become a regular background noise in Hanoi. Along with a seriously large amount of mopeds and motorbikes filling every street and pavements in the entire city!

The first hostel was a massive let down. It was very empty apart from a Chinese couple and was quite far away from the main night market street. So we took a walk along this night market street, had some Pho (beef noodle soup- stable dish of Vietnam) and looked at the knock off clothes. On this wander we found our new hostel, Hanoi rocks, which was basically a converted 3 star hotel with a Vietnamese club on the ground floor and a western club on the top floor with the dorms sandwiched in-between. It was loud and the beds vibrated until the close of the Vietnamese club but it was really good fun. It had a bar at the front with served free beer from 6-7 and 8-9 with free breakfast in the morning, so we were pretty happy to stay here for the duration. The rest of the time in Hanoi was spent seeing the museums, prisons and general army relics left over from French and american occupations. Needless to say, neither western countries were painted in a brilliant light, with Hoa Soc Prison going as far to say 'the evil american imperialists' against the 'innocent and fearless vietnamese people'.

Around our 4th day in Hanoi, we were booked on a tour of Ha Long Bay, featured on Top Gear and James Bond, which is a bay filled with thousand of small rock islands. We had a 3 hour bus journey there and embarked on the boat where we were treated to a filling and very, very vietnamese lunch. Fish dumplings, sesame seed chicken and pork skewers were amongst so many dishes. After that, we were taken to the biggest cave structure in Vietnam and had a guided tour around the seemingly endless caverns and weirdly shaped stalagmites/tites. It was halfway up a cliff so offered some amazing views of the bays surrounding it. After a kayak around the bays, in which it became apparent I was the much stronger oarsman, we had more vietnamese food, some beers and headed to bed for a early wake up to see the sunrise. (spoiler alert - we missed it!)

Dec had eaten some shellfish during the lunch/dinner so was violently and horrendously chundering all night on the boat, so the next day was a chilled affair whilst he recovered. Just a climb to the top of an island for a few more pictures and a cruise back to the Harbour in the sun to get back to Hanoi. Few more games of pool, beers for Matt but non for Dec and bed whilst the music kicked off. It really was a hostel in which the design was to be pissed and go to bed after 3am. Not a problem most nights but no chance of an early night if you wanted one!

Final day of Hanoi was largely a filler day until we caught the overnight train to Hué so we visited the Ho Chin Minh musuem, which turned out to be the weirdest and trippiest museum in the world ( we both came out with big 'What The Fuck' expressions on our faces). A visit to the First vietnamese university in the 1000s and then to the train station. Goodbye Hanoi!

Matt

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