After a very short plane journey from Laos I had a taxi ride to my hotel in the old quarter of Hanoi that was like being in a test simulator where cars, bikes, pedestrians kept popping out in front of you or cutting you up, what an introduction to Vietnam! I am assuming that there is order to all this apparent chaos, this city has millions of motorcycles, I think I saw a few thousand of them on the way from the airport. Met up with Poonam from work and hubbie Chirag and had a great stroll around the old quarter of Hanoi, had Bun Bo Nam Bo (dry noodles wit beef, bean sprouts, garlic, lemongrass and green mango) at a local street cafe to get into the Vietnamese cuisine, very nice. In the evening I had crocodile ribs which were ok, my problem that put me in bed with dodgy stomach for a day was some street dounuts I had earlier in the day, such a school boy error to eat something so obviously not cooked in front of me and that has been sitting in the heat of the day! Still this is a lesson for me, poonam and chirag, the experienced travellers that they are had steered well clear of them, so for my second and third days in Nam I ate only toast and water, pleased to say I'm feeling much better now and back to full fitness. There are some things that apparently were invented in northern Vietnam and I experienced one of them last night, the water puppet show! a gentle show depicting cultural rural scenes of nature, farming and romance where puppeteers stand in the water behind a screen and puppets bob up and down in a square pool of water, a pleasant way to spend an hour and rest! Been to a couple of museums and The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum which was a bit weird slowly walking past the body of the great man, all very respectful and quiet, he is clearly help in great esteem here. The museums are full of information regarding the great struggles against the French colonials to gain independence and the part Ho Chi Minh and others played in it, all very interesting. From 1902 till 1953 Hanoi was the capital of French Indochina then in 1954 a Geneva accord confirmed the status of independence. It was clearly not an easy ride to independence. I was here for the weekend and there is a big lake called Hoan Kiem Lake where all the youngsters stroll around, it looks like some kind of weekend ritual, couples hold hands and groups of boys and girls are there giggling and taking photos of each other smiling broadly at the camera, they all look like they are having a great time. On Sunday I was accosted by a group of university students eager to try out their English, it was great chatting with them, they were 20 years old and looking forward to completing their studies and being successful at work, like all over the world, their English was great and I tried to pronounce all my words to ensure they were not distracted and confused. It was great spending some time with Poonam and Chirag, we had a good laugh, they are great company. I am now off for a couple of days trekking in Sapa to the north west near the China border, it's going to be cold and could be wet which will make a nice change from the heat experienced so far.