Vietnam | Hanoi

Well, we made it to Vietnam..and they let us in..just!! Inevitabley there was going to be a problem with the visa..and so on entering the
country the woman behind the immigration desk had a crisis. We were then lead off by a man in a very badly fitting suit, who did lots of official things like tutting and pointing at random things on our flight tickets but eventually he stamped our visas and we were in!!

For the first time ever, an airport pick up, that I booked, actually turned up. As if that wasn't enough, they didn't try to over charge us!!

Hanoi is the inevitable expected madness, though with an alleged 2million motorbikes...which makes for an interesting experience when crossing the road - similar to Ciaro, you say a quick pray to whichever God/Saint you think appropriate, step out into the road and move slowly forward!

We've spent all our time in the Old Quarter, which whilst not particularly huge, is made up of lots of interlinking side roads and alleys (think Brighton and then double the number of side roads in the same space!). My favourite street found so far was one which was nicknamed 'Death Lane' by Holly. As we walked from one end to another there were people smashing live crabs, beheading fish plucked, flapping from washing up bowls, frogs being skinned and toads being battered to a green mush.

Unfortnately we haven't been to a Water Puppet show, but we'll hopefully catch one on the way back through when we get back from Halong Bay!