Hanging out in Hanoi

Walking the streets of Hanoi (Vietnams capital city) is a total hazard. Yes, there are pavements but these are jammed packed with parked motorbikes, tiny plastic chairs filled with diners and wares from bizarre shops spilling out onto the street. Therefore it's best to walk in the road, along with roaming street sellers, through the puddles of something suspicious looking and avoiding, you guessed it zillions of motorbikes coming at you from every angle. That said this city is a hectic place to be but it also has an air of appeal to it. We are staying in the old quarter, where each street sells a different product, and is therefore named by what it sells. So, we're surrounded by, shoe street, metal street, silk street, bamboo street, teddy bear street and shirt street.

Coming from the national park this city sounds even louder and seems more hectic than its counterpart in the South. But with a big lake, hodge-podge of shops and French architecture in our opinion it has more character to it.

Making the most of our short time here we did our usual settling in, scoping out the joint then we sat down to watch Hanoi's famous water puppet show. This was as colourful as it was bizarre and creepy, but a must do whilst here. As is eating Pho (noodle soup)

The culture continued on day two here, as we've been to the museum of ethnology. This has given us a good insight into Vietnams 54 minority ethnic groups (a few of which we are about to visit). It was a great museum with full size replicas of the tribes people's houses out the back. The rudey photo below belongs to a tomb house and is there to symbolise fertility - obvs. Dan then took me to yet another prison museum (the Hoa Lo prison or nicknamed Hanoi's Hilton by the US pilots that were shot down and detained there). This one was much the same as the others with stories of torture and large doses of propaganda.

We leave the capital tonight by night train. Then by morning we'll be back in the countryside around Sapa. Coincidently we'll be right by the border to China. Where we are hoping to meet some tribes people and get out into the mountain air.