Morning All
We left you with the news that we were stranded in Bangkok. So what can you do but find a cheap hotel in the back packer area and relax for three days. Carol was in familiar territory here and we managed to use the free time constructively with foot massages, full body thai massages, plenty of cheap street stall food and the odd beer or too! As predicted our visas arrived on Monday evening so we were able to fly to Hanoi early Tuesday morning. Yep, another ridiculous 3.30am start. This time we didn't bother sleeping at all first, I think it was the stress turning to relief and excitement preventing us nodding off this time.
We arrived in Hanoi at 8.30am just in time for rush hour. We were greeted at the airport and taken to our hotel - again arranged by a cheeky email from Libby trying our luck and I can tell you she's good, this time we had wine and treats waiting for us in our room. No petals tho!
The journey to our hotel was mainly spent wide eyed. It's not often you are in a lonely minibus in a sea of mopeds and it's not often you see mopeds doing the jobs of transit vans, pick up trucks and school buses! It seems this is the norm for Hanoi though, among our personal favourites are: carrying at least 30 dozen eggs stacked in two piles and tied on with bungee cords down a dual carriageway; carrying scaffolding poles (in the fashion of jousting poles) in the city centre in rush hour with no one even looking twice and then there was the guy riding pillion that had what looked like a sheet of plasterboard on his lap acting as a sail! We are slightly disappointed that the record number of passengers per moped currently lies at four - could do better!
Every car, van or moped that travels by feels compelled to sound it's horn. As a result of this I think Tony has ruined the beep beep "pardon me" gag for a good while!
Overall I have to say that Hanoi is a crazy place but you do kind of get used to it. Crossing the road was ridiculous at first, you simply will never find a gap where it's safe to cross, but learning from the locals you just have to go for it and it works, the mopeds actually go around you. We have both noticed today that we have even stopped looking for half gaps!
The currency here is also ridiculous. The initial over excitement of being multi millionaires has long worn off and we are now finding the mental arithmetic slightly tedious, especially when bartering and you think you've driven a hard bargain until you realise after all your efforts you managed to save the princely sum of 30 pence!
We are heading to Halong Bay tomorrow for three days on a traditional junk. I think it's fair to say we are both ready to leave city life for a while and cannot wait for the peace and quiet of island life.
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