We have finally arrived in Hanoi after 1 hour short flight, with a nice inflight meal and a very nice welcome at our guesthouse. The owner came running out of the hotel to greet us, and is constantly very excitable! We didnt want to leave Laos, but had a very nice last evening at a local bar where they put on a Ethnic Fashion SHow and some young boys performed a hip hop breakdance. They were brilliant. We would love to go back to Laos, and we felt bad towards the end as we had to make our money stretch the last few days and therefore were short with tips etc. You feel very guilty not leaving much as even 1000kip (less than 10p) means so much to them, they are so grateful.

Our first day in Hanoi was a little unsuccesful. We went into a photo shop to get our photos put on disk and for the second time, they lost all our photos!! They have now spent hours getting them back and we are waiting to go back to see if they are all there. Gutted!! It means our afternoon has been spent with no camera, though it is pouring with rain and the streets have flooded so not much sight seeing anyway. Traffic out here is hurrendous, and they all park there motorbikes on the pavement so you have to risk your life walking in the road, not a nice experience. We have already booked our crusie to Halong Bay tomorrow so looking forward to that, and we are hoping to stay a few more days in hanoi after that. Hoping to get tickets for the water puppet show tonight, apparently its a must see out here. Lots to do out here and very little time.