Hanoi

We flew east from lunag prabrabg from a tiny little airport and in a tiny little plane I was terrified because the plane had propellers and only 40 seats but the flight was very smooth and only one hour, getting the mini bus into hanoi 40 min journy for $ 2 was very good and thay take you to your hotel, dont take taxis you will get ripped off.

I have heard about the chaos and the motor bikes in hanoi but it still blew us away how many they were, fair play to to them they can drive they use horns like we use brakes!
I got taken on a motor bike by this local lad to a atm to get cash was so scary but christ we were tanking it again the horn saved us.

We went to an irish pub on the first night and met a class couple of guys troy and christina.
They both turned out to be pilots which fascinated us as we have never met pilots before, over a few beers we had a right laugh and will definalty meet up with them in cat da which is in halong bay.

Waking up in our first day in hanoi we woke up to torrental rain fall which flooded the streets up to two feet of water we were stuck in the hotel!! everytime a car drrove passed it causes a wake and flooded all the poor little shops!

One of the funniest things to do is cross the road its like a game of chicken you cant wait or you will be there for hours so you walk and the bikes avoid you its crazy.

We wandered around the city just soacking up the atmosphere and checked out the ha lo prison which was a prison for american fighter pilots during the vietnam american war, they describe it as ha noi hilton!

hanoi hilton was a prison that was used to lock up the leaders of the communist government during the french era...later it was used during the vietnam war to imprison the US POW the prisoners were tortured here and lived in crampy and dirty conditons....their feet are usually cuffed and locked up in a small room...inside the now converted museum, there is also a small garden where the old guillotine used to execute vietnameses resistance during french ruling still stood...and the cravings on the walls show how the prisoners were brutally tortured during their imprisonment. It was shocking the living envirmonets for men and women here.

We loved our two nights in this buzzing city but cannot wait to see halong bay and the coast of vietnam.