Hanoi and around

Hi everyone sorry about the long silence - Vietnam censored our blog and they had better software than Myanmar so there was no way around it. Still, we're safely over the border now so now I can post.

We flew into Hanoi from Vientiane. The Lao capital was sleepy to say the least. They had also decided to dig up every road in the central area, so it was quite noisy and looked like a bomb site. Still, the food was really good - a legacy from the French colonial era.

Hanoi was a stark contrast. The roads in the Old Quarter are so busy with bikes that it's hard to cross the road. Many more people, and a moto on every corner whistling for your fare. We also became instant millionaires at the bureau-de-change. We saw a water puppet show, the puppets were beautiful, maybe not for an hour though - get an aisle seat if you ever go.

We caught the sleeper train to Sapa, a French hill station in the north-west near the Chinese border. The hills were absolutlely pristine and it was nice to flee the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. We had a lovely 2 days walking in the hills spotting buffalo.

Halong Bay was the next stop. We did a two day tour on a Chinese junk boat. This was the most touristy place we had been and we saw a few friends from home - see the next post Ems. We had a night at the Costa del CatBa island resort, which was so awful we resorted to the Visa card. Lovely views of the bay, though we got monsooned on (again!) while out in a kayak.