hanoi

hanoi was great- a total change from thailand, not least cos it was cold!!!! havent felt that for a while and a bit of a shock to the system. still, actually made it feel much more christmassy and they have loads of trees and decorations which wasn't really happening in thailand. got a lovely guesthouse with a terrace right on the roof. traffic was totally mental- and crossing the road felt like a walk with death everytime. think the best way to deal with it is just to close your eyes and walk and hope for the best. or else you'd be stuck there all day. totally mad indeed. you certainly feel lucky to be alive after each time!

quite mad to see all the communist posters and flags everywhere, went to quite a few museums- all quite interesting, and the temple of literature- an old university with pretty ornamental ponds and things. best was going to see ho chi minh himself. he is embalmed in a dark room, and it feels quite scary going in with all the military presence. they actually made me buy a sarong or they wouldn't let me in as i had rips in my jeans (not out of fashion, i literally cannot get a pair to fit me here. total humiliation everytime i go in and cannot even do the zips up of the largest ones in the shop...). it said on the sign 'free clothing lend', but they refused to acknowledge that existed and made me buy one off them. hmm, nice little earner there. so stylish as well- kind of like a curtain... anyway, it was quite odd seeing him. he definitely looked like he could just sit up at any minute. also went to the water puppet theatre- a traditional vietnamese art, ,which was odd to say the least, but quite funny. glad it only lasted an hour anyway! spent the next few days just enjoying the city, drinking outrageously strong coffee, trying to avoid being taken on a tour of the city by motorbike/cyclo/having photograph taken with fruit baskets over my shoulder whilst wearing a pointy hat- surprisingly difficult to avoid. best option-run.

was fun, but xmas is coming and we want the beach and some heat! so we decided to head south where apparently its hot. we took a 27hr journey on the train which was a lot of fun actually! we had a 4 berth compartment with nice comfy beds and spent the time playing lots of scrabble, and cards. the time passed very well! unfortunately it seems to be raining everywhere in vietnam except hanoi. oh dear- we are now in nha trang and its pouring. never mind, maybe we'll be lucky in mui ne- leaving for there tomorrow! speak soon xx