Good morning!It's 12:21am here in Hanoi and after a short sleep my body is telling me there isn't going to be any more anytime soon.Rob is peacefully sleeping away (well jell) and I wish I was too.....Our first experience of Hanoi has been interesting.We took a taxi from Hanoi airport that dropped us off in what felt like was the middle of a very busy main road and the driver pointed roughly to where we needed to walk to find our hotel ("What, down there and turn right at some point?!").
A scary crossing of the traffic and then down some small alleys and there was out hotel. The young lady there was very friendly and warmly greeted us with a drink of tea as she took our check in details.
Climbing up two narrow flights of stairs we were shown our room.
I did a 360 and figured that whilst it was definitely on the small and basic side (they did small online and the Lonely Planet said basic to be fair) I decided I would show no fear to Rob and turned to him to say it was fine.
Upon approving the room, we dumped our bags on the little floor space there was and gratefully sat down.
After chilling for a bit we then put into action operation 'stay awake'.
This involved going for a walk to check out the place and getting as much light and fresh air as possible before we were too shattered to stay out any longer.
So, having roamed the many (and confusing) streets of Hanoi we settled for our first drink in the infamous 'kangaroo bar'. - a great little place recommended in the Lonely Planet for frog racing and darts (none of which I could see though their hospitality was lovely and the beer was great and very cheap).
We got chatting there with an American called Chris about all things 'Top Gear' and rather unsurprisingly a nod from him as to how much he loved Faulty Towers (Seriously? Us Brits have made a lot of comedy since then......!).The streets of Hanoi are, shall we say eventful. The pavements are covered (and I do mean covered) with parked mopeds so you practically have to walk in the road most of the time and then there are even more of the things!Families pile on to the mopeds and weave in and out of the traffic like uncoordinated synchronised swimmers. - (The two year old sat in front of their parents on the moped seemed completely un-phased I would add)
To cross the roads here (and you need to every few minutes) one has to simply (note the sarcasm of the use of 'simply' please) walk out into the road directly in front of the mopeds and cars and weave your own way through the onslaught of traffic and hope you don't get hit.I know Rob wants to take a rickshaw when we get up today though I admit unless the local pharmacy has a good stock of Tenna lady I will be even more reluctant as I know I am going to pee my pants with the experience. - I mean walking is one thing. You are in charge of where you go and how fast, but the rickshaws here come even more perilously close to almost certain collision.....!!!Today we will do some site seeing no doubt and take in a show at the famous Water Puppet theatre as well as book a boat tour of Halong Bay for later this week.I might even try and buy some wooden flooring - an odd thing I know but as the mattresses here are so hard, I thought it would be nice to put something softer on mine so I have a chance of sleeping to tonight Photos to follow soonOff to try and get a bit more sleep.Bleachy