Ha Noi Astoria Hotel Hanoi

19th Jan 2009 Depart Vientiane and arrive in Hanoi 1st I must update on the missing cardigan - found the following day by a fellow traveller (I say found, she took it. Daniel's disguise at the time confused her and thought he was someone else so took it for safe keeping). And the missing flip flop - found on the 2nd day of tubing (what luck that was, was getting painful walking around with only 1) A short stay in Vientiane as today we caught a flight to Hanoi at 14:10. We went for breakfast, ...

Well 4am finally came, after a sleepless night wondering if the taxi would show up and if we would miss the alarm - this feels too much like my last 4 years at work and I'm pleased we won't be taking any early morning flights for the next few months !! The taxi was waiting and made really quick time, although we're sure the driver was nodding off a couple of times when he hit the rumble strip - seat-belts aren't standard here - we were properly awake the whole journey! We were fairly nervous ...

We had a slow start to the day and after breakfast of fried eggs and baguettes we walked west to the Ho Chi Minh Complex. We got there at 10.10am just in time to drop our bags into the cloakroom and visit Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body in his Mausoleum. We had read up on this and we knew that we had to show the utmost respect. Uncle Ho is still a reverred man here in Vietnam, he's on all the money and is seen as a sort of saviour and example. We followed the directions of the guards and the red...

After a day of visiting Uncle Ho and wandering the around different temples, we opted for a more relaxed affair. Starting with a nice lie in, and then heading out to the Old Quarter, before finishing the night off with a water puppet show. Sounds like a lot, but should be one of our easier days. With our trusted Lonely Planet we walked along the busy streets, dodging hawkers, motorbikes (on and off the pavement) and anything else that could be thrown at us, the target being the Old Quarter. T...

Having booked a tour to Sapa (about 380km north from Hanoi) to encounter the ethnic h'mong people of Vietnam, a little homework was in order. Roughly 8 kilometres away from the Hoan Kiem District is the Museum of Ethnology. All past and present hill tribe people are documented in great detail, including the Black and Flower h'mong we will see first hand in Sapa. Getting to the museum will be half the fun. Being undecided about whether to haggle a price or get a taxi with a meter. A spot of br...

Having caved to the relentless pressure of the dragon lady (aka the hotel manager) we were bound for the Perfume Pagoda, roughly 60 kilometres away from Hanoi. That equates to about a two hour bus journey here, as the traffic and roads aren't the best. An early wake up of 7am and time to squeeze some breakfast in before the mini-bus arrives. The time given to us was 8am. Making it down at 7:30am, a greeting from the mini bus driver awaited us. Thankfully the concierge waved him away, and gave...