Hanoi deserves more than the one line, "Hanoi is shoe boxes on end and lots of old trees and lakes." Hanoi is quaint. It has an old town that is old Vietnam, narrow streets that can barely accommodate the millions of motor scooters, lakes and big old trees abound, and new construction, hotels and shops add to the mix. What is "shoe boxes on end"...

Hurray, I found the elusive beer corner just about 4 or 5 blocks from our hotel. The beer was good, but talk about inflation. The first day we got some it was 2500 dong or 17 cents a glass. The next day it went up to 3000 dong or about 20 cents or so. If the Filly ever did that to us there would be a revolt. We are back in Hanoi and today we lea...

Idag var det dagen C som i CEREMONIEDAGEN. Axel verkar som om han alltid har funnits hos oss. Han sov gott, vaknade vid 2 tillfallen och somnade sen om och sov till 08.30. Kl 14.30 kom mrs Chao och hamtade oss for ceremonien som agde rum pa Justitiedepartementet. Det blev en kort ceremonie, 30 min, men trevlig med information om vad man forvanta...

We spent 3 days in Hanoi deciding our next step. Given the lunar New Year festival was being celebrated the following weekend in Laos we applied for our Laos visa and spent the weekend seeing Hanoi before our trip to Laos on Monday. We walked everywhere around Hanoi and saw the local tourist sights but spent the majority of our time loking for a...

I am still here in Hanoi! Today is the first day of the Peregrine trip I am doing, so I am moving from my current hotel to the Peregrine one today - by the looks of things, it's a bit more fancy than the one I am currently in, and is in the French Quarter, whereas my current hotel is in the Old Quarter. I don't know if I have mentioned this befo...

Welcome to Hanoi :) On first arrival...all has gone well ! One minor 'incident' at the border crossing, we were 'charged' 2,000 dong for a 'health check' which consisted of....taking our money, then waving us through :) Youv'e gotta love em! The schemes they dream up. Weve met a couple of lads on the bus, called Andy and Andy, from Sunderland an...

Every so often we have one of those days. A day when everyone we meet or have to deal with, rips us off in a blatent fashion. This was one of those days. Its started with the taxi driver. We wanted to go and see Ho Chi Minhs body at his mauseleum and asked a legit. taxi driver how mcuh it would be, first of all he gave us some ludicrous amount i...

Arrived at Hanoi around 8pm, and was taken to the centre of town where i checked into a hotel on the outskirts of the Old Quarter for a whopping $15 a night. Although my room is like a palace! Large enough to house a small Vietnamese family. It has a t.v, fridge, climate air con, and a BATH!!!!(with hot water!) Awoke early to goto Ho Chi Minh's ...

I've left out all the stops in Vietnam until I have time to write them properly. It was an unbelieveable month though and I will do it justice at some stage!