Hanoi, Vietnam

Hello!

So we made it to Vietnam at last! A very very long journey. We had a 7 hour flight from Heathrow to Doha where we changed onto a 10 hour flight from Doha to Hanoi via bangkok. We didnt get off at Bangkok but still 3 take offs and landings so we both felt a bit sick by the time w got to Hanoi. We managed to get our visas nice and quickly. The taxi ride to the hostel was interesting to say the least. The drivers here are mental and so many scooters. Many people don't wear helmets and also have animals and boxes on the back.we saw a few with small children and babies on the front handle bars! Health and safety officers nightmare! We were a bit delirious and tired so had a rest and then headed out to find some food. Took us a while but we found somewhere with a decent menu. A lot of places looked like restaurants but when we got closer it was actually someone's front room with an open shop front, very odd. A few street stalls but were not brave enough to try that yet, especially with chicken claws on show. We met a nice English couple in the restaurant who have been here few days so they gave us some tips about where to go. Today is our second day here. Both feeling slightly better after a proper sleep so we went out for an explore. We are staying in the old quarter so we headed to the main city. All the streets are busy and the pavements are used to park scooters so you have to walk on the road which is scary. We noticed the streets are grouped by items sold for example one street is shops selling toys, another street they all sold sunglasses etc. We visited a lake in the centre called hoan kiem lake. It has a lovely temple in the middle. There was small bonfire type things with incense sticks and peppers and money- we thought it was some sort of offering to the gods( gods who like green peppers). We found somewhere decent on our way home to have dinner tonight. After the scary road crossing yesterday and waiting over ten mins for a gap in trafic we resorted to crossing with our eyes shut today and hoping they avoid us. Still alive so must be doing something right! The lady at our hostel is very nice and helped us book a tour to halong bay which we will do Friday and saturdy before getting the bus to the next town saturdag night, it is called Hue. Hope everything at home is good , heard its rainy so we will try and send some sun your way :) lots of love to all of you xxxx