It occurred to me I haven't done a post that really did justice to Hanoi, so I'm going to put a few thoughts here. Hanoi is insane - everything I read about it turned out to be true and then some. Everythings got something to sell and isn't afraid to shove it in your face (although not at the same level as Sapa!) The words you here most commonly are 'Hey mister, you want postcard (no), you want book (no), marijuana (no), opium (no), boom boom (no)' - I hope I don't need to explain that last one to any of you. Even though theres hundered of things you don't want, there's likely something that you will, as the ladies in my group can attest to - Sarah sent home about 7kgs of new toys. I myself picked up some lacquer noodle bowls with matching plates and chopsticks. The city make you want to own a house just to fill it with stuff! Its humid and hot most of the time, with the threat of rain never coming good on its promise. It physically changes from day to night we discovered when we tried to locate a little street stall we went for tea the night before only to discover it had been replaced with a motocycle pool! Want to buy a sink - go to the sink shop. Doesn't have the sink you want? Go to the one next door, or the one after that, of the one after that! The convenience of the city is that all the shops selling the same thing seem to be clustered together. Raod rules are more like guidelines than actual rules. I didn't see any accidents, the traffic (predominately motorbikes) seems to flow like liquid most of the time, spliiting and joining together with everyone honking their horn almost in unison. Want to try something extreme, get a moto across town and tell him you're in a hurry - skydiving will seem like making cake after that (unless making cake scares you). Thats all from Hanoi, I'm actually in Hoi An now - Hue was a blast, but I think I'll lump it together with Hoi An. Cheers, keep well and keep up the messages