good morning vietnam

hanoi, vietnam....fast, furious, filthy, fearless...

i wasn't sure what i would think of vietnam. we all know how enamored i was by the 'land of smiles', thailand, and how sad i was to leave that beautiful, friendly country. As always i have entered this new country with an open mind and an eagerness to see and experience everything i can in the short time we have here....but i'm afraid vietnam is going to have to do better than it did in hanoi to impress me....

People don't tend to stay here long...it is, for most travellers to vietnam, a jumping point to other places in the north - Sapa or Halong Bay...and now i see why.

the place is crazy...the roads chocka-block full of death defying vespa riders flying in all directions, each leaning on their horns as they join the other 50 or so commuters in the middle of the intersection dodging eachother, pedestrians, petrified tourists and the odd chicken. I think i have used up my 9 lives just crossing roads today! At one stage matt and i stood at a 'crossing' by the side of the road just watching a wall of traffic coming towards us for about 5 minutes until finally a local came along and showed us how it's done. The trick, you see, is to walk confidently and slowly in front of the oncoming mass of vehicles, parting the motorbikes, rickshaws and taxis like the red sea...yes, they beeped their horns fiercely at us but they were doing that before we walked out in front of them too...the first time we crossed a road this way i truly thought i would die....but after a day of stepping out carefully in front of fast moving traffic i am still wary but so far so good...don't try this at home kids.

the place is filthy...while having a shower this evening my legs actually changed colour as the dirt washed off....despite the fact that i was wearing trousers today. through a crack in the pavement as we skirted past women making their lunch on the street, matt pointed out a scurrying furry creature under foot...a rat....mmm. well, so long as he didnt end up in our dinner...!

Am i not selling you this city? Here's the crunch. Today we were robbed. Only of the equivalent of £2 mind...but it's the principle really. We are pretty cynical travellers actually - sometimes i think we are too cynical...until now we have never been robbed or scammed, touch wood....but, even though i'd been warned of the scams in hanoi, this time they got us. We had been wandering around the area near the Ho Chi Mihn museum...I had been keen to go in and learn about this man who, it seems, this whole country still revolves around...but the museum was closing in 20 mins so, disappointed, we wandered away, deciding to head back to the old quarter near our hotel and find ourselves some non-rat infested dinner. We were approached by a man offering a cyclo (rickshaw) ride. we bargained him down to 50,000 dong - still pretty expensive but we were too tired to argue any more. The next thing we knew he had grabbed his friend and 2 motorbikes were standing in front of us...some cyclo! still, it would save our legs so we hopped on...gripping on for dear life as our drivers expertly negotiated the suicidal traffic, i was quite relieved when they pulled over...
trick 1 - we had asked to be dropped near the lake....there was no lake in sight but we were told it was 'just up the road'....yeah like by about 2kms! we were nowhere near our destination!
trick 2 - matt offered his driver 100 000 dong whilst asking if he had change. Yes, said the driver before taking our money and speeding off down the road and into the traffic....we never saw our change. he had robbed us of £2 and we were nowhere near our destination. we were livid!

but we realise that we were silly. we let our guard down, and we learnt from the experience. It was just a little thing really but its put a sour taste in our mouth about this city. We are keen to leave and are glad we only decided to spend a day here.

Tomorrow we are heading to somewhere much more scenic and serene...Halong Bay with its limestone islands rising majestically from the sea...we will sail around on a junk boat for 3 days, spending one night on the boat and another in a bungalow on monkey island, near cat ba island....the days will involve sunbathing on the deck, kayacking, swimming, and generally chilling. Sounds much more appealing than coping with the hassle of hanoi right?! i agree...

stay tuned.xx