One of these days I'm actually going to put some or our photos up on this thing instead of using the default ones that happen to be on here, which to be fair depict the places we've been going quite well! So after a week of partying in Laos we were ready to culture it up in Vietnam, with the first stop being the capital Hanoi. But getting there was not so simple, the 26 hour bus from Vientianne to Hanoi was a f***ing nightmare. It was cold and well uncomfortable because they packed loads of random s*** in the isles like plastic chairs, sacks of rice and even a massive Sony Bravia TV that they were clearly smuggling across the border. But that was nothing compared to what was in stall from the guy sitting directly in front of me. H-o-l-y s*** the guy was the worst snorer in the history of mankind. I mean if you tried to do a deliberately over-exaggerated impression of someone snoring as loud as you could you wouldn't even come close to this guy. It was unf***ingbelievably epic. He even drowned out the trance I had blasting through my I-pod to try and take my mind off it. After a while I just started booting the back of his seat to get him to shut up I didn't give a s***, but that only did best to pause his onslaught for a mere few seconds each time. Anyway on top of that when we got the border, the douchbags at the passport office wouldn't give us our passports back until we paid a special fee the scamming little b******s. And on top of all that, we had to wait in the cold for hours whilst the border officers checked the locals' stuff in the luggage hold of our bus because they had wrapped it up like they were hiding something. After that we clambered back on to the bus for another 9 hours of fun. So 26 hours after we sat are now sore arses on the bus, we finally reached Hanoi. Hanoi is an insanely busy town with thousands upon thousands of scooters flying about all over the complex grid of narrow streets that make getting around a mission and a half. We got there in the evening and just chilled because we were shattered from the bus trip, although there was another loud snorer in our dorm go figure. The first full day in Hanoi we absolutely blitzed it, 'done it' as people might say often to my disgust. We got up early and went to the Temple of Literature, yes another temple but it was interesting enough and I got chatting to a local student who told me all about the temple and what all the stuff in it meant which was useful because I would have had no clue what I was looking at otherwise (f*** paying for guides). Then we ate in this famous vegetarian restaurant which Ben twisted my arm to go to. I mean I'm as big a meat eater as they come but the knock off pork I had was actually pretty good and way better than what Ben had so in his face. Then we went to the prison where they kept American prisoners of War, including John McCaine. It wasn't overly fascinating but then again I may have been numbed to all the anguish they were trying to portray by Auschwitz which I visited last year, which is incredibly harrowing. But it was worth a look see. Then we cruised around the big lake smack bang in the middle of Hanoi which is a welcome respite from the frenzy of the streets. Before dinner we checked out a water puppetry show that Vietnam is famous for where the stage is a pool of water and people behind big screens move puppets around on a stick in the water and portray various events in the year. I think anyway because it was all in Vietnamese so I didn't have too much of a clue what was going on. And I'm not going to deny that both me and Ben may have dozed off a couple of times purely because we were so knackered from walking around all day and a lack of sleep over the past 48 hours. After that we bumped into an Australian girl who had been on the nightmare bus ride with us and Ben rubbed salt into all our wounds by sending us on a mammoth one of his classic wild goose chases looking for somewhere to eat. "It should be just here," he says. Anyway we finally ate and then all went to a jazz bar to pay extortionate prices for beer (I mean almost close to what I pay at home, what's the deal with that!!) and listen to a pretty poor jazz band who barely hung together by the talents of the keyboard player who saved all their asses. Anyway it was probably the most productive day we've had all trip which was a good effort considering the state we were in after the bus. The next day it was off North to Halong Bay for a 3-day 2-night boat trip which will be the next post. All in all I really enjoyed Hanoi because even though it is insanely busy, there's never a dull moment which makes mooching around somehow still feel productive…