Hanoi the Capital of Vietnam, 8 of the 91 mil people live here."The City on Water"with more motorcycles than people. with an hour and 50 mins flight from Bangkok, but a two hours wait in the customs queue at the airport!  The Silk Path Hotel is in the Old Quaters of the city....prefectly located with a 5 mins walk to the central hub. We quickly showered and were out into the street. ....OMW....What a welcome, and even after Bangkok it is a complete mind blow, have never seen so many motorbikes and bicycles in my life, had always thought that Thailand was bad but this is crazy. There are no robots or road signs and no rules so street vendors, bicycles,motorcycles, pedestrian are all intertwined in this maze of streets where pavements are used for parking and eating. The streets are incredibly and surprisingly clean with a calmness in the chaos that cannot be explained. We ventured into a side street to find pavement restaurants and ate the most delicious roasted fresh crab with coarse salt, chilli and lemon grass. They serve greens with most dishes which is made up of coriander, basil, lemon grass leaves served with lime and course salt with dried chilli. Delicious and so cheap...a beer costs you R12....our usual gage as to how expensive a place is. Had a fairly relaxed and restful evening, so that we could head out early the next morning , which happened to only be at only 11.00 am!!

Following a map in a place like Hanoi had it's challenges...we were out looking for the Prison but landed up at the Lake where all roads lead...it seems!!! Once you've got your bearings it's fairly easy to make your way around. All roads in the Old quarter start with Hang.....which means road of....our hotel, for example was in Hang Bong, which is road of silk, .hence our hotel was called "Silk Path" and all the shops in that road were to do with silk.... And so it went on.   road of coffee, has all the coffee shops etc...eventually it got real easy to make our way around. .
A local can also make out how long a tourist has been in town depending on how he crosses the road. On our first night we stood on the road side for probably about 5 mins before attempting to cross it, waiting for a gap in the stream of motorcycles...eventually a local actually helped us across. He got out into the traffic and stopped the on coming  bikes and cars to let us cross....we quickly learnt that you cross a road with complete confidence any hesitation will get you run over, without a doubt. Pavements are also not necessarily used for pedestrians..they are all packed with parked motorcycles or vendors or plastic stools where locals will meet to have a cup of coffee, tea or a meal....try sitting and standing.from that height when you are as large as Jim and I.


We did the Hanoi Street Food Tour that evening and again tried to find our own way there...this time using Trip advisors app which allows you to use the map option without the  internet...well that was also hilarious as we real I used that we had walked past the address three times and decided to take a cycling rickshaw who so took us for a ride....literally around a block, where he bought his Lottery ticket and then brought us straight back to where we were and charged us 1million VN dollars which equates to R550.....Jim just knew that we would get ripped off and he was right!!!

Met up with the tour guides, Sie a young man and a young girl who was there training. cannot remember her name, but so.sweet and all she wanted to do was chat in either French or English. She is 22 years old and lives in a room in Hanoi old quarters with her mother, studies English and French. Se is from the country where his family lives and own a farm, his mother cycles 60kms every day to the city to sell her vegetables. He was a brilliant guide, explaining the Vietnamese culture as well as taking us to the little street vendors and amazing street food we had. From paper thin rice flour pancakes filled with pork mince and veggies, to spring rolls with phyllo pastry, to toasted baguettes filled with beef and cheese to coconut milk and veggie soup...ending with "egg"" coffee..the most delicious thick creamy coffee I ever tasted which is drank while peeling sunflower seeds...fantastic combination..