The border crossing was a fairly easy one, we had heard lots of horror stories about being charged for medical checks and other bribes but saw no problems. The bus took us the whole day so we only arrived into Hanoi in the evening.

The bus dropped us off in the middle of no-where again. This time we had planned to be more prepared and drew a map of where we should be dropped off and where the hostel was. That was pointless. So we wandered around the streets of Hanoi for what felt like forever before we gave up and got a taxi.

We quickly arrive at our hostel which is right in the middle of the Old Quarter, and there isn't a high rise in sight! That night we headed out for dinner and a few drinks. We even had the pleasure of watching a man grab a fish out of a tank and repeatedly smack it on the floor until it died whilst we ate dinner. Yum.

On our second day we spent it sorting visas for Cambodia and Thailand. It gave us chance to just wander around the city. The city itself is really beautiful. Because the French used to own Vietnam there is also a real European feel to the place. It was a pretty uneventful day, but we spent a lot of time in different cafés just watching the world go by. It was quite nice to just finally stop.

The day after we decided to start getting more educated on Vietnam so headed to a prison museum. This prison was originally built by the French, but was used to house prisoners of war during the Vietnam war. It was very interesting and after reading some things we felt like we were back in China again. Needless to say it was an interesting read and, even though very biased, it gave us a good insight into the war.

Later that afternoon we decided to walk to a lake where there is a B52 bomber crashed in the middle. We had learnt about this earlier in the museum so wanted to see it in person. It took us nearly two hours of weaving through the streets and mopeds to find the place. The plane had been shot down during the war and left there are a reminder. Not much remains now as the metal was used as scraps, but it was still interesting to look at.

For our final day we decided to do the Lonely Planet walking tour around Hanoi. It took us to temples and markets, and generally weaved around town. The temples are very different to ones we had seen in Tibet and Mongolia, not a Buddha in sight. Its interesting to see the different types of Buddhism, each of the countries we've been to so far has a different branch.

The local market we went to was definitely the worst (and best) yet. At one point we saw a massive fish which had been cut in half still jumping around. For those thinking 'its just a reflex', I can assure you it wasn't! It went on for quite some time with its gills still moving. After watching horrified for some time we decided to move on and stumbled across a woman skinning frogs. Baring in mind we have seen some pretty gross stuff out here, this was by far the worst (although Tom thinks the half fish still flipping around was).

Tomorrow we leave for Halong Bay. Hanoi has in some ways been a more relaxed few days, but the place is the most frantic we've been yet. The traffic is unbelievable. We still haven't worked out which side of the road the traffic should drive on. There are just mopeds and cars going in every direction trying to avoid each other. China was definitely an easy break into the traffic chaos!! But the city is a really beautiful place and we're all really taken with it. The French architecture is a real change from China's high rise buildings.