Hi all,

What can we say about Hanoi we didnt get off to the best starts here we arrive at 9am having been up since 3am. When we got to the taxi rank i realised that i had left the hotel address at the last hotel and although we knew the name we had no idea where it was!!! whoops.

The taxi driver thought he would just drive anyway. We managed to get to the old part of Hanoi which we knew was where the hotel was then the driver rang information twice and I spoke to them both times. After about half an hour of driving we eventually found it. Only to find once we were inside that the company has two hotels and we were at the wrong one!!!! By this point we had had enough, but they very kindly sent the bellboy round to collect us.

When we had checked in and sorted ourselves out we went for a wander and quickly discovered there is not a lot to do here. Made worse by the fact that it is the chinese new year and therefore a bank holiday in Vietnam so everything was closed for the Sunday and Monday. So after wandering about the went to the train station to find the earliest train out of here but they were all full for the next few days as the local people are trying to get home. The hotel were really good and we are booked on a sleeper bus for tonight which is hopefully taking us to Hoi An in the middle of Vietnam.

The driving here is even worse than Thailand they all beep their horns and just keep driving. Zebra crossing have no meaning neither do green men on the traffic lights. The beeping is constant and sometimes im sure they are not even beeping at anything in particular. There are a million scooters going round with whole families on them including toddlers, babies, chickens, bamboo and even a childs electric car.

We have had an ok time but would not rush back we think there is a secret backpacker group that we have not discovered yet as we haven't spoken to anyone but each other most of the time.