Rewinding to arriving in NAM MAN!!

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Rewinding to arriving in NAM MAN!!

We arrived in Hanoi to find ourselves in a train station in the middle of nowhere and had gone back in time by an hour so it was 5am. After wading through all the taxi drivers offering “the best price” for a take you all around the houses taxis, a lady called us a taxi and we arrived at the hotel to find it all locked up, the initial “what are we going to do now?” soon disappeared when the hotel manager arrived waking only by us merely trying to pull the handle! At this point we weren’t really sure what to think of Vietnam but hey things may look different after a few hours sleep.…

They did get better thank God! That day we did a city walk and, although Hanoi is very busy (loads of scooters) it has a real nice city charm that we found missing in China. The people don’t hassle you much and are friendly but not to over the top so that you feel suspicious of them. Hanoi is also reasonably cosmopolitan with some great cafes and restaurants. We had an amazing lunch at some American looking coffee bar without the American food which was lovely. We had a look around a temple in the middle of the lake. On the way back to the hotel we stumbled across a Buddhist religious ceremony in a small temple that was amongst all the shops and the people invited us in. We stayed for an hour of the 5 hour long ceremony where the lady (in the pics) changes her dresses about 22 times we saw about 8 changes and each time you are given a small amount of money for good health!

We stayed in Hanoi for a couple of nights and tried their local dish of Bun Chao where you get a bowl of a broth each with papaya and a plate of greens (herbs and salad leaves), plate of white noodles and a plate of this deep fried pork parcel – you add these to your broth along with chilli’s (which are the hottest ever – Nino I would like to see you being sick from eating a whole one of these!) and lime and munch away – it’s amazing! We also watched a circus from a bar that was 5 stories high so we had a perfect view – they shoved the stage in the middle of the road and all the motorcyclists just pulled up and watched in the street causing a traffic jam – some of the acts were very impressive.

Then we were off to visit Halong Bay…..

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Photos

Scooters
They all just pulled up to watch despite all the other traffic trying to get through.

Jake the snake Roberts
These snakes were huge and at the end of the show he shoved them all into this little basket poor snakes...

I am the music man..
I come from down your way and I can play...

Comments

[melissa wilson]

Hi glad to hear your still having a good time! Some great things you are seeing. It's thick snow here can't get to work today it's that bad!!! went to Spar at 06:30 to get some provisions and shevles were bare then so just came back with a pack of fags!!! You know me get the essentials. Ha Ha. It was up to my shins can't believe it. John's reusing to leave the house or to get out of bed for that matter. It has been taking over an hour to get from town to winterton. We haven't been up to anything here meant to be going to Lincoln Christmas Market tomorrow on a bus with my mum think that will be a no go, and I am supposed to going to Newcastle on Sunday for my birthday with Bry but all the trains are disrupted. Great as I have already pre booked everything and paid!!! Speak soon keep safe love Mel xx

[Christa & Billy]

its so colourful really pretty x

[abby]

I'm sat here with ten fooking layers on and a bean bag that you heat up in the microwave - I'm well Jealous :-) Look after each other and keep safe and have the times of your life. Bromley out x x