Hanoi Old City Hotel

... and I said Hanoi Backpackers. Oddly, five minutes later an overly-cheery little bloke hopped onto the bus and said to me, "You go to backpackers' hostel?!" I replied in the affirmative, and he grinned manically. Ten minutes of weaving through more traffic and at 10pm we arrived... supposedly. I got out of the minibus. "Backpackers' hostel!" exclaimed cheery bloke with a flourish of his hands. I took a look at the place he was pointing at, and sighed. It had a different logo ...

... thongs and fit birds, the people and the culture here is unbelievable...someday I will return and find that lil honey that bounced up and down on my cock soooo well...I also must find that rocket fuel purple tequila again, cos that is MENTAL! Bus trips, rifght...you can all stop complaining, cos 50 hours on a ****ing bus is a pretty hard record to beat, but we did it...The whole length of the country from fortaleza right back down to rio for new years celebrations ...

... Kiem - that serves as the centre of town, we positioned ourselves on a 5th floor cafe balcony to chill out with some cold beers and watch the chaos unfold at the roundabout/junction below us. It wasn't long before we saw our first crash, nothing serious thankfully but a girl was knocked off her scooter. Shortly afterward traffic was brought to a complete standstill by some maniac with a massive piece ...

... north!

Hanoi's memories for me are many motorbike journeys perched on the back trying to look lady like but also trying not fall off (both very hard to accomplish!), lots, sorry LOTS of traffic (attempting to cross the road is no mean feat!), beer Hoi and being ripped off! We liked Vietnam a lot but it definately isn't the friendliest country we have been to. We felt the people were constantly ripping us off and rude with it too ...

... appreciate the architecture and lakes of the city. You can start to appreciate the little things that make Hanoi unique: the traditional dress of the women who walk with fruit, the moto-bikes carrying produce and livestock, the calm of the city after a late afternoon rain. If you can find a niche within the city, you can find a calm within the madness.

The main thing I've enjoyed thus far is simply finding a foodstall, kicking back and having pho ...

... we went
to dinner at Cargo Restaurant, where we had amazing ice cream a few days before. More amazing ice cream last night! And night photography, that is always fun. Hoi An is a town
of lanterns, and during the full moon every month, apparently they
string up a ton of lanterns and have dancing and food and it’s just a
big old downtown lantern party. So magical! We missed the full moon,
unfortunately, but there were still a few lanterns to ...

It is just after 1pm Wednesday 31/7/08 and we are waiting at the baggage conveyor, after flight from Singapore, our suitcases appear and ther is relief to see it arrive. Collect suitcases and through customs & imigration without problems.
We are soon out in front of the terminal searching for our guide Zen .We see the placard "Neville & Gwen Smith". It only takes a few minutes to deposit our suitcases in the 4WD and we get in ...

With the closing of the Da Nang-Siem Reap-Bangkok air route developed by Thai PB Air, there is now only one direct international air route to the central city of Da Nang. Tran Chi Cuong, Deputy Head of the Tourism Division under the Da Nang Culture, Sports and Tourism Department, has said that PB Air stopped operating early in the second quarter of the year. It remains unclear when the air route will ...

... e. hep A hep B...(kidding!) We met some great folks at the Khao San Palace Inn and spending hours by the pool baking our bellies has turned us a golden syrupy brown. Bek is starting to look more and more like a member of Yothu Yindi. The other good thing about hanging in Bangkok was we got to catch up on the latest boot-legged flicks such as The Wrestler and Gran Torino...all made for a good cheap night out. So the time eventually came for us to ...

... with scooters and with people on tiny plastic stools eating and doing business day & late into the night means pedestrians alternate in and out of the narrow streets, mingling with the slow river of motorbikes and the occasional car. Every night in Hanoi, I grab a little preschooler-sized stool myself and enjoy a glass or two of 'Bia Hoi', fresh beer that's made outside the city and sold by nice ladies on multiple street corners. Pulled from a keg into a ...