Si Chow! We have arrived in Hanoi, Vietnams capital city and it is very crazy..bikes everywhere! It is even more French then Siagon wth beautiful tree lined boulevards. We were in Hue before which, in the middle of the country, was the old capital. There was a huge old palacial citydel there which we rode round two in a very small cyclo..very funny..we got stared at alot! In fact this country is very starey, on a night train last night, Vietnamese people kept opening our door when we were asleep just so they could have a good look. Very strange. I suppose it doesnt help that one of our friends is very tall with curly ginger hair! It is quite hard to travel cheaply here, as nothing here is in English, no one hardly speaks it and the country is huge! Prices to attractions are really steep(relatively) so it is almost as if they don't really want tourists here, which can be a little dis-heartening sometimes. Anyway the country is beautiful and we aare especially looking forward to doing a 3day trek through the Northern Sapa mountains in a couple of days. We have taken a couple on night trains to get up here, oth of which were good fun and good practice for the Trans-Mongolian! Talking of which we are flying to Beijing around the 6th and from the 10th board our train to Moscow. It is all very exciting but id love to have more time in Vietnam, there is alot to see that we dont have time for..o well may be back some day! lots of love jecsx