Vietnam (Hanoi)

We stepped of the plane to a sweltering 32°c heat at 4pm, the taxi was waiting to take us to the hostel. The hostel seems nice, clean, well located and has WiFi in our room. Drink and food seemed easy to find and we ended up staying out most of the night. At our last stop we meet some girls from Denmark who we started to talk to, they too were also looking for a Halong bay trip and mentioned they had heard from another traveller that the place we are staying at was good and worth it. They ended up following us back and getting a room at our hostel.

Day 1

Today we have several jobs which need doing including buying malaria tablets, laundry, hostels and travel to Hue, Halong bay tour as well as a few sights. We Googled a few pharmacists and went to three, all sold doxycycline but we had no idea if they were real or legitimate. In the end we went for it and bartered down and got 200 tablets - it cost 330000, about £11 which compared to england was is about 20 times cheaper as our doctor suggested, lets hope they work and are real. We checked expiry dates and went with ones in boxes with proper leaflets etc. We then walked around Hoan lake and went to the temple. We were hawked by several book sellers as we walked around the lake, I ended up buying 'Graham Greene - The Quiet American', a book that is supposedly a classic to read when travelling Vietnam. After a lunch of local Luc Lac beef we headed for the army museum and ho chi Minh mausoleum however on arrival it turns out that they are both shut Mondays and Friday and being Friday threw and spanner in the works. The day is sweltering hot at a steady 35°c so we took refudge in a cafe for a midday ice cold beer. We investigated a popular Halong Bay tour but upon arrival it felt like an 18-30's piss up and decided a more relaxing tour was for us. The evening consisted of booking our Halong Bay trip, our train to Hue, a hostel in Hue for a few days and some research on getting our next visas. (Halong bay tour:
http:// http://alovacruises.com/tour/alova-gold-cruises-halong-3-day-2-night)

Day 2

One thing Vietnam has is an unbelievable amount of Motor bikes and scooters, they must out way cars 50/1, the traffic is so constant. You see bikes piled 6ft high with boxes, scooters with dogs on, scooters the 4 people sat down all using there phones and not holding on and in terms of safety anything goes, we have seen a collision already and its not even been two days. We have now seen another crash the way home, crazy driving everywhere, its dangerous to cross the road, especially at night. Today we explored the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, after taking a wrong turn and basically adding an extra 2km when actually finding the place (not needed in blistering heat). We were then confronted by a 250m+ queue which kept going and going. It only actually took 30min to get to the viewing room where you keep and steady pace in two single file lines as you shuffle by the body. Its the oddest thing we've seen yet. The body is preserved like a stuffed animal and you can see the fully dressed body of the ex ruler lying there, hands crossed in full detail surrounded by four guards in white suits looking like there straight from the set of top gun. We found after later on that the body goes to Russia every year for servicing, its bonkers and complete weird as hell! After we found a local cafe and stopped for dinner, misinterpretation on my behalf meant I basict got a plate of rice for dinner, um lovely! We then went to the war history museum and it was distinctly average at best. Lots of planes and weapons but no history and little writing. When back at the hotel after preparing for the tour the next day a commotion kicked off big time in the hostel lobby. It turns out this crazy French we had spoken to at breakfast the day before had come back to find his backpack and room looted, his camera & laptop where gone. He's a big man and at one point I thought he said he wanted to check all the rooms! Makes you think about your life which resides in your backpack and how pissed off you would be. We both have felt safe and secure here and have only meet and spoken to what appear to be pleasant staff. We have been good and always padlocked our bags everytime we left our room but would it make a difference, would it put off an opportunistic thief? Maybe a paddlock is good as it means its a harder to get it, if they really wanted they would only need a Stanley knife. It has only reconfirmed we must always pack everything away and padlock our bags up everytime we leave our room.

Tomorrow we leave for Halong Bay for our 3 day 2 night cruise, hope its good and not dodgy. http://alovacruises.com/tour/alova-gold-cruises-halong-3-day-2-night