Hanoi

We got to hanoi in the end, after spending a pretty interesting night in the KL airport. We managed to get a bit of sleep in starbucks, but they woke us up when they were closing and we had to go sleep in Maccas. Haha. We came across this shop that sold all kinds of lollies and fruits, and things, but they had the weirdest things! We saw dried fish that was so crispy it looked like potato chips, and this weird thing that had a label saying "chicken floss roll"-we didn't try any! We have spent 2 days and 2 nights in Hanoi so far, what an amazing city! It is so full of life and character-and so, so busy! We went out for lunch the fist day we got here, and when we went to pay the bill was 40,000d. Not really understanding the money yet we took a while to work out that it had cost $2 for both of us! Oh my gosh. We have experienced so many sights and sounds and tastes in the last couple of days it is almost overwhelming!

Some of the highlights;

• Seeing the beautiful lake, it's amazing how calm the benks of the lake are despite the crazy city all around it. We have walked around it a few times on our way to various things, and it is always an amazing sight. We were walking along on the first day, we saw a bride and groom posing for photos on the river bank, she had the most beautiful dress, and looked just like a doll-absolutely stunning! She didn't look very happy though but we just assumed it was the heat. About 50m on, we saw another bride getting her make-up retouched before getting a photo taken. Surprised by the coincidence, we kapt walking and thought nothing of it, but couldn't ignore the situation when, 70m on, we were surrounded by a sea of brides, grooms, wedding parties and photographers. There were so many! It must have been a magazine photoshoot; grumpy, skinny, pretty brides, standing next to bored, flustered husbands, Photographers literally grabbing their faces and turning them roughly, pushing the couples closer together. It was such a weird thing to see, but then yesterday we went back, and there were more! So confused!!!
• Going to this amazing coutryard for dinner, where they had massive tables in the middle and food being cooked at stations all around. We sat at this communal table, opposite a lovely Canadian couple, and looked over the menu. Everything was only $1 per dish, so we assumed they were little serves. We thought it would be fun to order a few different things and share. We got a vietnamese pancake, vegetarian dumplings, fried rice balls, soup and chicken skewers. The waitress and waiter started laughing at us halway through our order, but assured us that the serves were small when we atarted freaking out. The liars! When the pancake came, it was this MASSIVE meal! It was bean sprouts, prawn and chicken(?) in this fried wonton, set out sort of like a giant piece of ravioli, with a 20cm diameter. We got given rice paper rolls that you had to full with the pancake, some greens, and dip into chilli sauce. It was the best ever! And after that, we went to this place called "Fanny" which has the best ice cream in Hanoi. We ordered ice cream sushi! Which was coffee, strawberry and vanilla sorbet, rolled up with sesame seads on the outside.
• The Hoa Lo prison was an intense experience. It wook us a while to get through it because we were so overwhelmed by it. They still have everything set up like it used to be, and you can see marks on the floor where the prisoners were, and the guillotine that they were still using up until the 30's. So freaky.
• Exploring the city is he best way to see it. Just walking down streets and following what looks good. You can always find your way back, but we have found that when you get lost you discover the best things!
• We went to KOTO yesterday for lunch, it was amazing, and the people were so sweet and so lovely. What a wonderful place.
• Meeing some great people. We are staying with the loveliest bunch of girls, and we went out last night with Joan and Rachael from Canada. It's great how everyone is so friendly and can offer so much advice.
• We have mastered the art of crossing the street! The road rules apear to be; pedestrians give way to cars, motorbikes give way to pedestrians, and cars just plow through everyone and the motorbikes swerve around them. The best way is to walk slowly across the street at a constant pace, avoiding cars, and the bikes just swerve around you. You have to fight everything you know not to sprint across, but it seems to work well in some bizarre way! Claire nearly got hit by an old lady riding a bike, who did an endo and then started yelling at her in vietnamese. So funny!   

Lowlights:

• Trying to be scammed on our first day by a girl pretending to raise money for orphans, and then another girl doing the same thing the next day.
• Taxi driver taking us to the complete wrong place after doing laps of the lake to get the fare up.
• Things we wanted to visit being closed.

What's ahead;

• Tomorrow we are going to see the perfume pagoda.
• The next day we are going to HaLong Bay for a 3 day/2 night cruise which we are super excited about.
• Going to see the water puppets at some stage.

So far we are having a blast! Spending way too much money because we cant resist all the beautiful things, but that's how it is! Excited for the next part of the trip :) I'll try and post some photos soon, so many already!