Oh Vietnam, you are a crazy place. We have just arrived in the capital Hanoi so this is our only experience as yet, but it is a different one. The old centre of the city comprises of densely packed streets which are sweaty and vibrant and full of motorbikes. There are no traffic rules here, or do not seem to be any, anything goes and at a four way junction this is a sight. Honking the horn is the way to get through and pedestrians are warned to cross the road at a slow but consistent pace and the bikes will weave around you. This has worked although I have taken the sanctuary of holding Lee's hand each time and like a baby with a dummy, I can't do without it now. I will need weaning but not here!

Shops and cafes line the roads but you will often need to climb through the parked motorbikes to get to them. The food is consuming us at the moment as I am sure it will continue to throughout Asia. Locals pack onto tiny plastic tables and chairs, these are a small bunch of people but in our experience these tables are made for children. We are not very large people either but a lunch sitting around these is playing at being giants. We have eaten phos (soupy noodles - see how hot Lee was eating this today!), buns (cold noodles, herbs, fish sauce, meat), cha ca (fish, herbs (lots of fennel), noodles, peanuts, onions), stir fries (noodles or meat, as you would expect) and keep getting offered tiny donuts by street sellers so they are officially on the to-do list. Coffee is amazing here. It is strong and thick and short and although not sweetened it has an edge that is far enough away from being bitter that it goes down well. Chon is coffee passed through a weasel and then ground and is prized as the best. We are told this is expensive. Should we give it a go anyway? Iced drinks are copious as they were in Hong Kong and I am enjoying iced lemon tea and today an iced coffee with condensed milk.

Today we have wandered around the old town and taken in the atmosphere. Lee is buzzing. It is so full on. A few days max here I think although people probably stay longer. There are lots of bars to keep travelers occupied at night and much more history and culture to suck up in the wider city. We visited a temple and saw a giant turtle which is supposedly embalmed, I'm not so sure.

It has just started pouring which we expected as the humidity was high today. It poured a couple of hours ago, we dashed out for dinner and have just got back and it has started again, how is that for timing! Lee has gone downstairs to smoke and look at the rain, it is loud and will hopefully clear the air. Tomorrow we will choose a museum or somewhere to learn more about this country beyond Hollywood movies. The 'Vietnam war' is called the 'American war' here and I will avidly adopt the change. I do like to assimilate when appropriate. Today we saw quite a few people with missing limbs and I wondered if this was from the war. Lee suggested that the traffic could be a higher risk, we shall find out. Post Hanoi we will be heading down the coast of the country, by train or bus. In two weeks we will be meeting with Richard Miller, a friend from Kensington and Chelsea Council, in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. He is joining us for three weeks and we will see Cambodia and Laos and some of Thailand together. Being six foot four inches, I am looking forward to laughing at him sitting on the childrens tables for lunch.

And one final thing, it is cheap! Really cheap. Last nights dinner (two meals, two beers) was six pounds. Our hostel is ten a night. The dress I wanted to buy today was 20 pounds, damn everything else being so cheap, in most places that would have been a bargain.