Getting to Hanoi was probably one of our worst experiences so far! After a 6 hr bus ride to Hue we had to get another connecting bus to Hanoi which was a further 12 hour overnight bus journey...dealing with that and a hangover was...interesting!

We spent quite a few days in Hanoi. We checked into the Back Packers Hostel which was a pretty cool place to stay and meet loads of other back packers. Next day Sal headed back to England for Emma's wedding!!!

While Sal was at home Vic and Jen spent alot of time not doing very much apart from dealing with bank card problems and wandering about! Vic decided to go and eat snake one night, Hanoi is famous for killing a snake in front of you, ripping out its beating heart for whoever is brave enough to eat it!!!They mix the blood and bile with alcohol and give it to you to drink...lovely!

One night we found a street side bar that was selling beer for 3,000 Dong/ 10p! nice idea but as far as we were concerned it was definitely watered down and could have given us gut rot... Vic polished her pint off while Jen was going no further after a couple of sips!!haha

Hanoi is a funny place to go out a night, the bars all close up before 12pm! After that it is pot luck trying to find somewhere willing to serve you beer before the police come and turn everyone out! Doesn't stop the locals telling people to come back later when the police have gone! Vic experienced this...

After a few days (of seeing very little of Hanoi) we finally got to go on the Halong Bay boat trip, and off we went!