Widely documented as 'Asia's greatest city', Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, was our first base.

A day didn't go by in Laos, Kenya, even Thailand, where the skies weren't picturesque blue and the sun didn't shine. Thang Long (Hanoi - City of the Soaring Dragon) however, had different ideas.

We emerged into the grey gloom from our hostel and explored the 'Old Quarter', an area where people play chicken as they cross the roads, challenged by scooters, taxis and touts. As the country develops at an amazing rate, here, travellers can still enjoy an untouched Vietnamese experience - with a KFC or two thrown in for good measure.

The congested streets were narrow and long. Pavements full of people sitting (on small plastic chairs) eating street food, parked scooters everywhere and to our surprise, four small puppies in a 50cm by 50cm cage climbing over each other. We visited a local market where fish, lobsters and turtles were alive and kicking, ready to be purchased for their inevitable future.

We continued the exploration of the city into the following day (Tuesday), where we visited a couple of museums and their neighbouring buildings.

The Hoa Lo Prison Museum, nicknamed the 'Hanoi Hilton' by its inmates during the Vietnam war. Built by the French in 1896, it held nearly five times its planned inmate allowance by the 1930's and was renowned for its high escape rate of prisoners. For example, from the night of March 11 to March 16 1945 over 100 prisoners escaped via the sewer.

Senator John McCain's flight suit and memories remain displayed as a reminder to all of the torturing that took place to many American pilots that were shot down, captured and incarcerated here during the American-Vietnamese war.

Next stop was the Vietnam Military History Museum, something I'd been looking forward to since disembarking the plane on Sunday. As expected, the museum displays aircraft, tanks and other weaponry from previous conflicts ranging from Soviet and Chinese equipment to the western technology of France and America.

The walk back to our hostel took around an hour and we stopped off half way to try and buy some ice-cream. It's amazing how when you want something and have seven different coloured flavours in front of your eyes, you can dislike all of them. Coffee, coconut, lemon... What happened to good old vanilla.

I spent the rest of the evening catching up on my blog, before we went for a bit of food and booked our boat ticket for tomorrow to Halong Bay. Lets hope the weather doesn't spoil the pictures!