Sin Chow from Hanoi, It's mental here! A real culture shock after sleepy Laos. Mopeds crowd the streets beeping all the way...crossing the road takes real courage, you just have to take a deep breath and hope they swerve to avoid you! We have seen teeny mopeds piled high with unbelievable cargo...entire families, flocks of chickens, oxen, panes of glass, you name it, they will take it from A to B perched on the back of a Honda Om! Our hotel is just outside the old quarter, but the streets are maze like and jam packed with kerbside cafes, shops, mopeds and people. It takes us a good 15 mins to walk to Hoam Kiem lake, but it makes for an entertaining journey! All of the shops are crowded together and each shop in the street will sell the same thing. The street names are unusual and difficult to pronounce so I found my way by thinking of them as nappy street, toy street or broiled bird in a coke can street! The food here is unusual, and we haven't felt able to be brave with our menu choices!! Frog and snail is common as Vietnam used to be a French colony. I was all set to try dog until we wandered through an open air market. Picture an old fashioned roast pig with an apple in it's mouth...this place was selling whole roast dog. It's little legs were sticking out and as it's skin had pulled back with cooking it was grinning madly...the stall holder thought my face was a picture so he held it up shouting 'ruff ruff'..priceless! But I cant really judge as I eat McRubbish often enough! We took a trip to nearby Halong Bay. It's a UNESCO heritage site and really beautiful. It was named after an old Vietnamese legend: thousands of years ago two Dragons were flying over the coastline, one flew low and her tail hit the water carving out hundreds of limestone islands. The English translation is Decending Dragon Bay...an amazing place! We explored a huge cave, cleverly named 'Surprise' by the French. The first chamber is small, but full of impressive stalagtites and mites. The second is huge, but surprise!! the third is enormous :) We have lots of highly interesting photos of rock formations to bore you all with when we get home! The overnight stay on the junk was a good experience. The weather was much like home, cool and foggy so we missed out on night swimming but the food and crack on the boat made up for it. We plan to visit Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum tomorrow. The poor guy requested that his image should not be used on money, and that he should be cremated. Instead they enbalm him and put him on display in a glass coffin. At least he gets a holiday though...for three months each year he goes to Russia for a top up of fluid and his make up done ;) We have been spending time with a lovely Canadian guy called Claude (Hello!). His crack is top notch and he does a really good Charver impression, hearing him say 'Here how lend uz a tab man' transports us right back to Eldon square! Our next stop is Hue, another heritage site with beautiful tombs along the riverbank. It should be warmer so we are looking forward to it!