Busy in the day, more of a pleasure to wonder at night

Narrow bustling streets with vietnemese going about there business and the smell of food are the mood of these strees at night.

>>> The beauty of Ham Rong Mountain in sa pa, Lao Cai

Small art shops in and around bars, cafe’s & restaurants, intermingled with imitation North Face clothing shops make for an interesting place as you head down to sword lake.

The food everywhere we ate was fresher than ever & the choice of upmarket or ramblers bars gave a wide spread on the types of places people like to drink. You can buy cheap original artwork aswell of copies of the masters which only a proffessional could spot. In the day its another matter all together, its absolute chaos there must be 2 mopeds for every person living there and dont be surprised if you see someone actually in a shop shopping on there moped. Its like a tsunami wave after wave of mopeds through the streets.

Even the night market people drive round the stalls on ther bikes. But for all the chaos its like Tokyo, naturally organised somehow. In all our time in viet nam we didnt see an accident and we even joined in hireing mopeds everyday and joining the masses in transit which was exilirating. Whether there are traffic lights or zebra crossings it doesnt matter the traffic wont stop for you. You just need to walk, dont think just walk. Forget everything you were taught about crossing the road. You have to put your faith in others, literally close your eyes and use the force, you will be surprised but your confidence in not being hit will grow till you dont even stop before crossing, you just walk.

An area not far from hanoi center is about to be re-developed by the Koreans in a 6.5 Billion investment by the Vietnemes Government to bring the city forward into the 21st Century. The beauty of this place is it seems stalled in the 1960s which I fear will be lost in the near future. So if you have been putting of a trip hear for any reason, dont wait any longer. Vietnemese Airways Have recently started direct flights from Manchester to Hanoi.

One night around eleven while walking these streets, we passed a house with its front doors wide open. By chance Everton who are my football team were on the telly in the front room. The owner a 50+ year old lady noticed we paused in suprise and although she spoke no english undertood this team belonged to us and even though we are two 40 year old men had no problem letting us watch the first half while she done the ironing. I loved it its great…..