The 12 hour bus journey to Hanoi was probably the most uncomfortable we have had so far. They really like to make sure they are getting as much money as possible on these journeys which means every bus is filled to the rafters with not just people but rice, chickens and anything else you could possibly think of meaning leg room is hard to come by! However, we had something new to look at every 10 minutes as we drove through the mountains and Matt enjoyed trying some tobacco the way the locals do through a long bamboo pipe with a chilem (very much like a bong!). In the taxi from the bus station our first impressions of Hanoi were that it is very similar to London with flyovers and lots of one way streets.

Vietnam has a population of 86million (13th largest in the world) and with its fast growth rate they are expecting to be in the worlds top ten in no time. 6 million people live in Hanoi and the hustle and bustle makes it an exciting place to stay, the roads are filled 24/7 withmotorbikes, cars, cyclos and bicycles. Crossing the street and getting to the other side unharmed deserves a high 5!

Our guesthouse was a family run place and they were really nice to us. On our first morning they cooked us breakfast, however, their little girl who was probably about 2 had to be taken out with her father as she was crying so much. We decided to walk around the lake in the centre of Hanoi and accidentally found a place selling Bia Hoi - the normal sequence of events followed, Gem being full from Monkey nuts and drunk on beer and Matt with a smile from ear to ear that we only spent 1.60gbp in 3 hours!!! Whilst attempting to walk back to our guesthouse we bumped into the Brazilian guys we keep meeting and arranged to go out with the to show them the way of Bia Hoi the following evening.

After another breakfast with the family and baby still crying we realise that she is crying at Matt's beard. The Vietnamese don't grow beards so in her eyes she was being asked to eat breakfast with an ape! We left them in peace and went on a walking tour of the old quarter. It was brilliant, there's always so much to see. People selling fruit from baskets balancing on a bamboo cane over their shoulders, lots of shops selling everything from grave stones to material to shoes and normally each street has shopes which only sell one thing and the streets are named as such. Our evening with Kim and Gestavo ("the Brazilians") was eventful. Some of their friends had just flown in so about 10 of us went on a hunt for Bia Hoi, hard to find at night as it goes quickly because it is made fresh in the morning. We managed to find a restaurant selling it and sat upstairs for a good few hours sinking glass after glass and swapping travelling stories etc, a top night.

Hungover and weary the next day we spent time lazing at the guesthouse before making our way to the Water Puppet Theatre to watch a show. It was great, hopefully our pics will do it justice. Matt had read about a Jazz club so we got a taxi there after the show and spent the next 2 hours watching a fantastic band with a pianist (who played like Elton John) a bass cello, drums and of course a sax. They were brilliant!

On our last day in Hanoi we booked our bus to Halong City and spent time looking at where to go and what to do there then had an early night ready for another day of travelling.

In summary we both really enjoyed Hanoi, there's something about the place which is different to any capital we have been to so far on our travels. The people, places and general buzz of the city made it somewhere we could have stayed for a lot longer.