Forget Kuala Lumpur, Phuket and Bangkok; the world's craziest traffic surely has to be in Hanoi. There are literally no gaps in between the cars, motorbikes and cyclists so you could easily spend 15 minutes waiting to cross the road if you're going to be all British and health and safety about it. After watching the Vietnamese we have learned that the best way is to inch forwards into the oncoming onslaught of traffic slooowly - giving it a chance to split in two around you as water would around a stone - ignore all the horns and beeps, and just FEEL your way across to the other side. It's genuinely optional to have your eyes open and probably less stressful if you don't.

We had our first taste of the crazy traffic on the way from Hanoi airport. Our minibus driver seemed allergic to braking!! We felt prematurely aged when we got off. And narked, because despite agreeing the fee around five times with the driver, he kept changing his mind and trying to charge us more just because we're foreigners. The 13 other passengers crammed into the minibus with us, all Vietnamese, seemed shocked when he threatened to dump us a few km out of town if we didn't pay twice the going rate. They made sure we paid the same as them and one gentleman even walked with us once we got off until we got our bearings and knew where to head for our hostel, bless him.

Our hostel is lovely actually. It used to be a hotel so the rooms are huge and it still offers fancy hotel things like free toothbrushes, slippers and a minibar. The only downside is that it is very cold in the room so we have to wear socks and multiple layers to bed. It is about 10-15 degrees outside, which feels absolutely freezing after Laos. We keep wondering if it is colder here than in England...

Yesterday we walked round the peaceful Hoan Kiem Lake and visited a temple on an island in the northern part of the lake. There was lots of vietnamese money lying around in the temple, presumably offerings, and we had to keep reminding ourselves that 1,000 vietnamese dong is about 3p and therefore not that crazy an offering (or tempting a souvenir!) after all. We also booked up a trip to Halong Bay, after visiting lots of agents to play them off one another and get the best price, and went to the train station to get our train tickets to Hue. In the evening we went for drinks and dinner with a couple we meant in Luang Prabang. We drank 15p glasses of home-brewed beer on plastic stools by the side of the road, sampled the local wine with our food, got FREE beer from a bar just for turning up before 9pm, and ended up sitting cross-legged on the mezzanine floor of a small bar drinking yet more beer and wine.

Today we slept later than we intended to and didn't end up doing much of note. It was rainy and dark so not good weather for walking/sightseeing. Instead, I got my hair cut monstrously short by a lovely lady who charged me for a blowdry even though she used the hairdryer on my completely dry hair without washing it first. I think something got lost in translation there. We ate in KFC after realising there are no Macdonalds in Hanoi (I know, I know but sometimes you just fancy fast food) and at 5pm we went to a traditional Vietnamese water puppet show, which was interesting and definitely worth seeing even if we didn't understand a word that was being said. We have just finished dinner and are relaxing back at the hostel, discussing how different Vietnam is to the Asian counties we have visited so far.

Tomorrow we go to Halong Bay :-)