Hanoi, Vietnam

We arrived in Hanoi at about 8 in the morning, having spent the night in the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal of the airport. The taxi in was fine, and we got our first glimse of the Vietnamese countryside. The oddest thing is the buildings - in slightly built-up areas, you get really long, thin, tall houses, often painted in bright colours. The nearest I can get to a comparison is Amsterdam, but of course in Amsterdam all the houses are side by side and often here, the houses on either side are one-story dwellings, so this one tall thin building looks decidedly odd.

We had booked a room for several nights in a widely-known backpacker's hostel. It had the usual bright colours and sofas etc and I can see why it gets such good reviews, but to our bleary, sleep deprived eyes it was crowded and busy and we couldn't move into our room until about twenty past twelve, having arrived around ten (we suspect a mess-up on their part that they didn't admit to us; they blamed another couple not checking out in time and then put us in a luxury room with tv, dvd player, kettle etc for one night. We didn't complain).

As usual, much of the first day was spent sleeping or resting. We emerged as it was getting dark and walked to the nearby Hoàn Kiếm Lake, in the centre of the Old Quarter. I think Hanoi is probably even worse than Bali when it comes to scooters. It's absolutely incredible how many there are and they fly around all over the place, with little or no obediance to things like centre lines or traffic lights. Crossing is a totally different skill: if you waited for a gap in the traffic you'd be there forever. The secret is to edge out a little at a time - as long as you are moving slowly and predictably the scooters will "flow" around you. It does mean that you sometimes realise you're in the middle of a huge road with mopeds flying past on both sides, but you get used to it. And avoid cars and anything bigger; they won't "flow" around you.

We ate in a little resturant we found. I was pleased to discover that they don't give you a knife and fork - you have to use chopsticks! Alex was less impressed at the idea; I just like showing off, I think.

We found ourselves outside the water puppet theatre, and we (mostly Alex, actually) decided to buy tickets for the next show. I've never heard of Vietnamese Water Puppetry before, but it's really amazing. The music and voice actors were live, and the slapstick, lively performances were really entertaining, and often a little bizarre. We both really enjoyed it, and I took loads of pictures.

We headed back for a (relatively) early night. The next day we didn't do anything until we had to check out of that room and then strangely had to wait until 12 to get into the other one (I thought it was empty..?).
We headed out and made for the Hoa Loa Prison (it's now a museum), with interesting and sometimes gruesome exhibits (like a real-life, used guillotine). Generally it was well done, although their description of the treatment of US pilots differs substantially to what you might find elsewhere!
We went on to the Temple of Literature, but I'll have to talk about that next time - I've run out of time again!