Our series of Playstation like drives from airports doesn't seem to have stopped, the road rules in Vietnam seem even more relaxed than Beijing with only the ratio of mopeds to cars the difference. Where our high speed introductory trip in China was like a rally game the Vietnamese equivalent was a cross between Grand Theft Auto (if you have played it remember how much fun it was knocking someone off of their bike!!) and Dance Station (given the number of times you stamp on the floor in the vain hope there is an extra brake pedal in your taxi!)
Mopeds really have replaced the bicycle as the transport of choice. In Hanoi with a population of approx 4 million there are an estimated 2 million on the roads, you will see everything carried around from the husband with his wife and two kids, to a chest of drawers to terrified tourists on the xe om tourist taxi moped (translated as hug vehilce!!)
The roads become even more fun when you are a defenceless pedestrian removed from the safety of a car. The Lonely Planet guidebook advice is to engage in eye contact and walk slowly across the road in order to give the riders time and space to go around you...no sudden movements and certainly don't break out into a run to get to the other side. With these pearls of wisdom we set out on an adventure to discover the city, the first flaw comes when you realise it is quite difficult to engage the riders of 10 mopeds simultaneously particularly when they are coming from both directions...so you just have to hop off of the pavement and hope that it works...and it did, it is a bit like being a moving traffic island.
Hanoi is a very pleasant city sitting at the top of Vietnam making it a very useful starting point for backpackers following the north - south route down towards Cambodia as we are, it also has a large student population. These factors combined mean that it is quite a hectic place with a whole host of people whose sole purpose it is to ask you if you would like to hire or buy something, it is not the kind of place to go for a quiet stroll but having said that Cath and I fell in love with it. There is definitely a slightly european feel in both the architecture and food but also the lifestyle with couples sitting around the central lake and a decent cafes scattered accross the city.
After settling into our hostel we went off to book a trip out to Halong Bay where we were expecting to float around thousands of stunning limestone islets in the sun whilst sipping on cocktails. The only problem is that the tour company had failed to book the weather and after our bus ride we boarded the boat and chuckled with the three other couples about the fact that it might be a bit of a damp trip (James, a Spurs fan, was even missing the cup final for this!!!) The cruise was nice enough (yes I used the nice word) but not what we were hoping for although it could have been a heck of a lot worse if we hadn't persuaded the captain to switch off the karaoke.
The weather has now been with us for a few days and we are hanging out in Hue, a small city about half way down Vietnam. We have watched snowbaording movies, caught up on some sleep, started out pool playing, read some and generally mucked about with each other which has been very cool. It is nice to sit and talk nonsense all afternoon!!
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