Viet Hotel Hanoi

Today very little happened as Steve and me were trying to kill time to go to Sapa. In the evening we got the sleeper train to Lao Cai, the carriages were pretty comfortable. We met two south african girls and stayed in their carriage chatting to them and their roomates, a friendly american couple with a lovely baby. After a while we got to sleep in our room, with our roomates; a middle-aged vietnamese couple, already asleep.

... and feel as though you are being constantly sold on to the highest bidder. That aside we got got the opportunity to spend 2 nights aboard a junk sailing the beautiful (in most parts) Halong bay. It's a bittersweet experience as you chug round the bay with all the other junks and start to notice that in places the water is very dirty.

Like a lot of developing countries they have not got it ...

... i went for a swim in the sea it was crazy as the waves were 3 meaters hi lol it was fun tho on the last day we maged to get the boat throught halong bay to see the bay which was amazing but the trip had ended and we could not exstend the trip i got some money back when we arived back they were supper cool at the hostel so all was good im going to a place called hue next i will update my blog when i get chance

take care lots of love peter xxx

... that I think I'm figuring out - of course riding with someone and maneuvering thru it with me at the helm might be a whole 'nutha thing. Fortunately traffic moves fairly slow and it isnt too scary until you are in cross traffic, around cars and buses or maneuvering in tight streets with pedestrians and bikes going around and against you.

PS - if you haven't figured it out yet, click on photos to open them up to a larger size

... of standard toppings over com tam.







Com tam platters are enormous, and cheap. They also taste incredible,
says Das Ubergeek. The rice has an unusual texture: not very sticky,
and unevenly broken. Available toppings include perfect, snappy lap
xuong sausage, and properly dry and powdery bi (shredded pork). There’s
also tender tau hu ky, fried tofu ...

... next to the opera house and looked pretty impressive. We were not let down...lush room, pool, room service....The next couple of days we took a trip to a couple of shopping malls, relaxed by the pool,walked around the lake and sat in a bar overlooking the crazy traffic. Generally chilling out. It was one of the longest times we have stayed in one city and by the end of the five days we had run out of things to do.....but felt pretty relaxed!

... a retired civil engineer, has a son in London working for the police, and luckily, spoke really good english. This is pretty funny, on my taxi cab ride back to the Old Quarter to find a place to stay the car in front of my taxi broke down, the guy was trying to push his own car and jump in the get it started. The guy yells something to my taxi driver, and of course he proceeds to push the car in front of ...

... bug sheet and mosquito net. First impressions: I love it, it's madness, everyone is on the move, I cannot understand how there aren't any traffic collisions, but everyone is going so slowly they manage to swerve in time. There is a pecking order on the streets and pedestrians (especially Westerners) are at the bottom, then bicycles, mopeds, cars, taxis, buses and lorries. Traffic lights are fairly meaningless, so to cross the road you just need to wait until there are ...