Hi all !, So since we last spoke, we have left Bangkok and are now in Hanoi, Vietnam. We had a reallly good last night in Bangkok, we found a lovely outdoor market that at night turned into a music venue with live bands ( who sang english songs!) and food and drinks, (it was very cheap and worked out about 1.80 a meal). We left Bangkok early morning and caught a flight to Hanoi. You can sum up Hanoi in 2 words, fascinating and CRAZY. Its so hetic!! there are thousands of mopeds and no road rules whatsoever ha . everyone is busy getting somewhere, and as most of them only have mopeds you see some crazy stuff tied to the back, i think the best three we have seen so far have been a full sized tree, a live goat and a pig straped to the back and ...(this ones the best)...about 30 bags of live goldfish hanging off the back of one, you really do have to see it to believe it!! We do like Hanoi, but the noise is incredible. Every person on a moped feels it is necessary to beep their horns whenever anyone is in their way( which is all the time) so there are constant beeps!! ( which i think defeats the point!). It is very interesting to cross the road, there are no crossings whatsoever and mopeds come at every direction. At first we stood at the side of the road for ages, the vietnamese come and get you and hold your hand across the road ha so we have discovered now that we just walk with them, and weve actually got quite good at it. The trick is is to not dodge the traffic let the traffic dodge you.............Hanoi is very different to Bangkok, it is not globalised at all, which actually is quite nice. You will not find a mcdonalds, or tesco here!! and you are not allowed to use Facebook!! You can see they are still trying to recover from the war, the ladies sit at the road side everyday selling fruit or food out of baskets for pennies! while most of the men sweep the roads with brooms, BIG culture change!!

All in all Hanoi is a must see.. just because its so crazily different, however a trip to Halong bay is needed for some peace and quiet!! xxx