Caught a dreadful night bus to Hanoi. The driver had a DVD blaring to keep him awake and it stopped the rest of the bus passengers from sleeping! The seats were very narrow and covered with hard vinyl so not at all comfortable to snuggle into. We arrived at 6.30 am and were loaded into taxis and taken to a budget hotel in the old city. It was difficult to get in the hotel doors as the street vendors were on the hotel steps selling meat and vegetables. We decided to find a hotel that was not such an obstacle course.
Hanoi is pretty noisy with all the horns tooting and the thousands of motorbikes. Crossing the road is a feat. Pedestrian crossing signs don't mean anything and the red light at traffic lights don't always mean stop! You have to move slowly forward through ten lines of motorbikes and they drive around you- it is quite hard to do when you are not used to crossing the road in this way!
We have done a lot of walking around the city and even popped in on the NZ Embassy to check if there were any changes to visa requirements for Taiwan or Japan. The Vietnamese staff were not very helpful.
Visited the Literary Museum which was where the teachings of Confucius were passed on to the scholars.
Booked a tour to Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island from here.
