HANOI

Feeling suitably chilled out after my time in Laos I decided it was time to head for Vietnam. Little did I know what lay ahead!!!!. but first I had to cope with the flight from Luang Prabang.

the airport consisted of one little landing strip and a small building. The check in procedure was farcical..they went through the motions of checking you through security, then you could just wander about freely after you got your boarding card!

I managed not to shout out too much on the plane. But I did feel the pilot was coming into land a bit too fast for my liking so I found myself calling out " oh slow, slow slow down!" much to the amusement of the very sympathetic Chinese man next to me.

From the moment I landed in Hanoi the travelling experience changed for the worse! I had been lulled into a false sense of security, because the adventure so far had been pretty much plain sailing. But vietnam was to be a lot tougher. I could not get any money out of the ATM machines but they wanted people to get cash from their credit cards at special counters for extortionate rates. Then I was surrounded by taxi touts when I got through immigration. It was quite scary. I told them which guesthouse I wanted to go to.But they took me to three others in very seedy areas of town. They kept telling me each one was the one I wanted to go to but I knew it was not even though they did not have names above the door. They actually steal the identity of other hotels to try to lure tourists , and they are in a horrible state. It does warn you in the lonely planet, but guess who had not read that bit yet?
Anyway eventually I got very cross and said " if this is the hotel is my boyfriend here yet?" They looked worried and said "you have a boyfriend?" and I shouted that I was meeting him at the hotel I had asked to go to !They then hurriedly got a taxi and I was taken to the place I wanted to go to in the first instance. But it shook me up a bit.




The city of Hanoi is just so hectic there are so many motorbikes and I just do not know how they manage to get around but they do.It is a communist country but with capitalist ideals and so everyone is out to make a fast buck and they constantly rip you off. Which is very wearing and you have to be on your guard all the time.


Rather than risk crossing the roads on the first day I decided to take a cycle taxi.But that is not without its risks as you are at the level of the traffic.It was also very very cold and rainy.And I have to say I was not prepared for it being quite so cold. It was something to do with a cold weather front that was coming from China.

I decided to have a day of sightseeing, first I went to the women's museum, which was fascinating.It showed you what the women of vietnam did to protect their country during the war and I was really moved by their bravery.