We lost our co-traveler, Craig, after Phi Phi as he got an early call back to duty and had to head back to South Africa. We were back down to two and we were heading to Vietnam, a part of South East Asia that neither of us had been to.

After nearly 6 months away and 30 flights, who would've thought that Hanoi, Vietnam would be the first place that we would arrive to a placard greeting, friendly smile and someone waiting to take us to our hostel (correct...chauffeur to a hostel, definitely new age backpacking). We had joked about it many times when we walked out of baggage claim to see lots of people waiting for others, but never for us, so we really thought we had arrived this time. That, and the fact that we didn't have to worry about figuring out how to get to our hostel from the airport. Unfortunately, the weather gods weren't as kind and our second greeting in 'nam was that of heavy rain. But not even the rain could stop our fairly short, scrawny and unassuming driver from giving us a firsthand exhibition of the craziness of Vietnamese roads. He shuffled and maneuvered the car through traffic, between motorbikes and around obstacles in a way that would put even the most brazen of Louis Botha taxi drivers to shame. And no move went unnoticed by us or other motorists as every move was preceded by a toot of the hooter - and sometimes I'm sure one was thrown in afterwards just to demonstrate that he was the superior driver. For us as passengers, all we could do was sit back and trust in the system and that the craziness unfolding before us was a natural part of Vietnamese transport practice. As we would learn, this is the way of the road in Vietnam, and though we know that we would never dare try take to the roads ourselves, you can take comfort in the fact that the drivers do actually know what they're doing.

We made it to our hostel alive and left the taxi with that little laugh that shows as much appreciation for what we just witnessed as it does for the release of stress we just let off. Our hostel erred slightly on the expensive side at $15 each a night but if it wasn't for the other backpackers using the computers downstairs and the massive chill room and pool room on the second floor, we would've confused the fully equipped rooms - even down to gowns and slippers - for a 4* hotel. Again, this is a fine example of modern backpacking. Guess every traveler deserves to feel like Donny Trump every now 'n again. Well, maybe not on that level, but it's the little bits that count. They even have a currency that is so weak that you can become a millionaire on your first withdrawal (1'000'000 dong is about $50).

The old quarter is the place to stay in Hanoi and definitely accommodates the majority of foreigners to the city. To be honest, we not sure if there is any other part of the city that travelers go to outside of the old quarter. There's not too much to see here in terms of sightseeing except for the odd museum, communist site, temple or water puppet show but if you've never been to Hanoi before then the thing to experience in this city is the city itself. Trying to traverse the small roads by dodging motorbikes (of which there are about 4 million in the city); sitting at a bia stand on the pavement while you watch the chaos in the streets and admire how it just works; smelling the aromas from the street side motorbike cookeries; eating the incredible local food; and tons of shopping (real and fake, local and international) are all part of this experience. For the average newby in town, it takes a lot of concentration walking around and it can actually be quite stressful - good thing the beer is so cheap. At one point we stood at a zebra crossing on a four-lane, one way road for about 20 minutes before finally following two locals across the roads and trusting in their experience to get us to the other side.

We were quite disappointed that all the bars in the old quarter shut down around 2am and we weren't able to find anywhere to go after that. We did hear though that there are bars or clubs that are open later so maybe ask around when you're in Hanoi to find out where they are. Maybe these are the parts of the city outside of the old quarter that we don't know about.

Our first experience of Vietnam was eye opening to say the least. But it was incredible, culturally awakening and exciting too. Who would've thought so much of life can take place on a pavement or a motorbike.

Trek on...Brett and Darren

P.S. Check out our upload of pics from Asia. And keep up to speed with where we've been staying and how we've been getting around in our blog posts from Johannesburg