After a dose of valium the bus journey to hanoi was quite pleasant as i was unconcious most of the way, not quite so pleasant for the vietnamese bloke i was sleeping on all night though im sure! thanks to the floods in central vietnam hanoi was fully booked and it took a good hour to find a place to stay, it was a struggle to carry my bag around the streets whilst trying to shake off the effects of the valium.
every man in hanoi has black teeth from the pipes they continuously smoke, huge bamboo pipes inhaling really strong tobacco, i had to turn it down twice i dont think my lungs are ready for that! we stayed in the old quarter of hanoi where all the backpackers seem to stay but its all spread out unlike bangkok. each street sells different things so all shops lined up on one street are all the same. we seemed to be staying on locksmith street, just round the corner every shop sold nothing but pillows, we also saw clothes street, coffin street, tin box street, alter street, electric avenue. strange set up for a city. but useful because it all looks identical, all the roads are jammed full of bikes and its on a grid system so without remembering what was being sold on each street it would be impossible to find your way home.
we managed to stumble across a crossroads which is famous for all four corners serve bia hoi. this beer costs 2000d for a glass which equals six pence. the typical childrens plastic chairs that are the only furniture in the whole of vietnam spill out into the road and the beer goes down very easily!! occasionally street sellers cycle through shouting something in vietnamese and the bartenders go crazy making everyone cram back onto the paths because its a warning the police (looking more like a mafia gang) are coming to check nobody is drinking on the roads. seconds later the chairs go back into the street, then ten minutes later the same shout comes. at that price i was happy to get up and down all night!
WE took a trip to halong bay which is a world heritage sight. over 2000 islands all over 100m high cliff faces are dotted around in the sea. our boat took us to a cave then for some kayaking around the islands then we played drinking games until early morning and slept on the boat.
the next day our plane to bangkok flew out from hanoi on the same day our visa for vietnam runs out. Definatly hope to go back there oneday, maybe even try and learn some of the language, so much poverty and so much recent history of war but the people are still smiling and seem far happier than any other country ive seen. (the cheap beer and rum helps too!)
