Hanoi city. i dont think anything could have prepared us for the unorganised chaos of Hanoi. The streets are full of conflicting colours, smells and noises. i wont even mention the mopeds. despite this assault to our senses we have had a fantastic start to our trip. the people here are extremely polite and helpful. we spent all of today (thursday) strolling around the old quarter of the city. each street is dedicated to a particular trade for example silk, leather or religious shrines. it took us all day to follow the predefined map in our travel guide (given we lost our way several times). we made a few select purchases and tried our best to haggle to limited success (we need more practise). the food is very good however we were put of any meat
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