So I have arrived safe and sound in Vietnam. I didn't do much on my last day in China but spent the day on another elusive hunt for my train tickets. This time when I tracked down the random tower-block they told me I needed to go to the train station. That's the last time I book through a tour operator! Then I had fun spending my last Yuan, for 80 Yuan (8 pounds) I bought: shoes, two pairs of socks, a T-shirt, a wallet, lunch and dinner. Sweet.

At the train station I was rescued by two local girls whilst leaning against a wall (to relieve rucksack discomfort) staring at the timetable in bewilderment. Everyone I met in China was amazed I was travelling by myself. They tend to do things in pairs or groups and it is very couply. Rose told me Chinese boys dote on their girlfriends because they see them as their future wife and I saw a lot of young couples, especially with babies. They tended to make a lot of fuss over the children as well, which makes sense with the one child per family rule. Anyway, my helpful assistants directed me to the soft seat lounge (for rich local people and travellers who can afford the tickets) of which I now realise there is one of in every station. Too bad I found this in my last stop.

This was a sleeper train, another misnomer as border crossing occurred between the hours of 12.30am and 4.30am. Rudely awoken by the guards switching on the lights and demanding "passaporta!", I grumbled and pulled the duvet over my head before waking up and realising where I was. We were shepherded off the train to a room where we had to race around getting necessary documents stamped (including a mysterious "health" card which seemed to serve no other purpose than extorting money from us) before boarding a new train. (China has different rail tracks to other countries which is why we had to change trains. On the Mongolian-Chinese border we were airlifted and our wheels were changed in midair which was pretty cool).

Woken up again at 7.15am by the Vietnamese man above me shouting on his phone I jumped out of bed in a panic because the timetable Vodka Train gave me had the Hanoi stop at 6.50am. Stumbling out of the compartment I realised we were travelling through a rainforest and I caught a glimpse of big leafy green plants and misty waters, which I had no time to enjoy in my hunt for information. There was no-one around but my neighbours in my compartment manged to communicate the Hanoi stop was actually at 9am so no need to panic. Well, at least I was well awake now. I spent the rest of the journey staring out of the window and being watched in amusement by the Vietnamese lady next to me at the wide-eyed wonder with which I was gazing at her country flying past the window. There were many many bicycles (a recurrent theme) with women wearing those pointy hats, and most of the buildings were in a state of disrepair, whether they were being built or knocked down it's hard to say, but most of the towns seemed to be surrounded by piles of rubble.

I'm staying at Hanoi Backpackers' Hostel which seems to be the place to go here. There are lots more backpackers and foreigners here and lots more solo travellers which is good, I don't get stared at any more! There's definately a market for tourism as well, walking down the street you have to fight off a constant barrage of eager motorbike and cyclo taxi drivers, women selling fruit and boys trying to palm off copied books and DVDs. Hanoi is very busy and very loud and chaotic. Pavements are not places to walk but places to sit, eat, sell and park motorbikes. Roads are filled with a plethora of motorbikes, cars, buses, bicyles, pedestrians and more motorbikes. I have already been run over! Walking down the street I felt something bump into me and had just enough time to turn around before a big black BMW calmly ran over my foot. I just kind of stood there in bewilderment and the driver mouthed "sorry!" through the window. Welcome to Vietnam. Don't worry, it's not serious, though it hurt quite a lot, and now I'm even more scared of the traffic!

Tomorrow I'm going to Halong Bay on a three day trip on a boat, which includes kayaking and rock-climbing. I booked this before the foot running over incident so hopefully I can climb! I will update later in the week. I don't even know what day it is, I have lost all sense of time.