We arrived at the airport and caught our flight into Vietnam. We were careful so thankfully we didn't get ripped off by any of the many scams they have going here. The shuttle bus dropped us off in the old quarter of Hanoi. Unknowingly, we pulled a bit of a 'Ken' and walked for miles in the wrong direction. We then found two french girls that spoke no english, but got us to the right street in the end. Here we found a great hotel. Brand new again, aircon, cable tv, fridge, hot water - all pretty standard to you im sure, but heaven for us! They just became a real pain in the arse wanting to know whwere we were going, what we were doing and when were we checking out. It was only because they wanted ustobook a trip with them that they were pushy. In the end we used to just leg it out the door before they could say anything. Although it is one the the biggets cities in Vietnam - sometimes refered to as the countries capital, its extremly undeveloped. There aren't really supermarkets to buy food - you buy from markets. The shops are just blockswithshutter on the front. These are devided into Streets, eg. Car parts are all down one street with each shop selling specific parts, and so on. They also don't seem to like westerners much and will sometime refuse to serve you. Particuarly the French. Which is odd seeing as theres still very much a french influence. Lots of coffee shops, and bakerys and lotsof cheese. Some even still speak the language. Its also still a city that has propaganda shops and speeches that are announced over microphones throughout the day. Its not unsafe here though. It's just a very different way off life, especially here in the north. For the whole time we were in Hanoi (except the last day), it rained, monsoon style. But it was funny prentending to do reditions of singing in the rain. Not so funny our 20p raincoats leaked. Their driving is also the scariest we've seen yet. Not many countries over here abide by a highway code. In Vietnam, i don't think one even exsists. Sometimes they drive on the right, sometimes the left. Most of the time on the pavements. They suddenly become blind when approaching a red and always run it. Instead of breaking or stopping, they beep their horns to let you know their coming cos they aint stopping. Crossing the road is also tempting fate. To them, there are no such things as 'crossings', even though they are marked on the road. You just have to walk and let them go around you. It makes it worse if you stop to dodge them, because then they get confused and hit you. The trick is to wait until a little old vietnamese lady is crossing the road with her baskets, stick close to her, and you'll be fine.