The Hutchie's Am-asian Adventures

Oh Good Lord! I do believe the first genuine culture shock of the trip has taken place. If we thought all those other places were different, we were unprepared for the assault on the senses that is Hanoi, Vietnam. Dumped out of the airport taxi nowhere near where we had asked to be dropped, we fought our way past the countless (and we mean countless) mopeds, motorobikes, cars and people coarsing through every street and alley. One market was so busy, a live, possibly closterophobic fish had hopped out of its container and was slithering away from its stall. The owner was quickly after it and clocked it one on the napper, before returning it to it's plastic bucket. Someone will eat that for their dinner tonight! Needless to say we won't be ordering fish. Anyway, it's loud. LOUD. Hanoi is Hanoisy YES! Horns are used as they were meant to be used. To let people know you're there. Unfortunatley there are so many people letting us know they are here, we are somewhat overpowered by their tooting. You feel kind of powerless in reply. I think we might invest in one of those bicycle comedy horns so we can give a little honk back - feel more part of things. It's all you can do to stop yourself turning round and shouting "OK, OK we know you're there, we're trying to stay out of your way, but we can't walk on the pavement cos that woman's washing her hair and he's sleeping and they're having dinner and he's playing chess and she's selling pineapples while picking her nose!" It's brilliant though. Somehow this organised chaos works and noone ever seems to get upset by it. To add a bit of spice to the whole scenario, it's approaching the Chinese New Year/ Tet festival so everyone's getting ready for that. (Think Oxford Street last Saturday before Christmas and add pure hunners of motorbikes and some livestock!) Motorbikes have cherry blossom and orange trees tied on the back, gift baskets, lanterns, banners and cards are everywhere as people get their homes and shops ready for New Year. Apparently it could be even noisier come Friday night when the Tet festival/ New Year party begins so listen out for it over there. Normally we would stay in and watch Only an Excuse and Chewin the Fat, so not sure what we'll do. Seek out the Vietnamese equivalent of Jackie Bird (who always hosts a good New Year's bash to be fair) and party all night I guess. We'll fill you in once we've sobered up. Anyway, tatty bye for now dear friends and thanks again for all your great comments and emails. We love reading them. Cheers the noo. xxxxxxxx P.S.  A few cool photos to follow!