Eat your heart out...

Jamie Oliver!

Well the train journey was fine! We managed to sleep quite a bit, I woke at around 4am, and just read my book till Frances and Hai surfaced, just before the train arrived in Hanoi at 5am. Poor Bill's hands are in a terrible state, so we got to our hotel and we showered and changed while Hai took Bill and Lola to a doctor.

We decided to venture out for a walk - at 7.45am - BIG mistake !! rush hour every bit as mad as Ho Chi Minh City, if not worse! You know how on the motorway at home people in a hurry go up the outside lane then cut back in at the last minute? Well, here they just go up on the pavement!!! So after about 20 minutes we decided we wanted to live to see Halong Bay, so back to the hotel, struggled for ages to get the internet, only to find out that the whole hotel internet was down. This is the first problem we have had though, so can't complain.

Bill was kept in hospital so we had a late start but first off was a cyclo ride around the old quarter on a lovely warm dry day! Sitting in a seat while someone bikes you slowly around is strangely relaxing, even in the Hanoi traffic. We then set off in the minibus for a village about 45 mins away, where we were to be treated to a cookery demonstration/lesson and then eat the results! Although this is a little business for the tourists, the house had been in the family of our hosts Mr and Mrs An for three hundred years, and they took great pleasure in showing us around. Just like any house anywhere that has been in a family a long time, it was stuffed with 'stuff' - vases, dishes, huge inlaid cupboards and more but was very simple, though it does have a modern toilet, a concession to the western visitors. Dishwashing however was done in a bowl outside in the open air.

We were shown how to make spring rolls, which were then taken away and fried for our lunch, which also consisted of mounds of delicious freshly prepared vegetables, pork, rice, noodles - so much we could hardly make a dent in it.

There were so sweet, standing to attention when I asked if I could take a photo, that this has to be today's blip. And anything Vodkaman can do, I can do too, so a pic of me in spring roll action is

here

The afternoon was spent with a quick look at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum - which is closed today - a huge marble edifice, very communist in feel with a massive open space in front, manned by white uniformed soldiers that blow a whistle if you overstep the mark - literally - there is a yellow line on the road you mustn't cross. Then we went to the 11th century 'one-pillar pagoda', and finally the Temple of Literature, Hanoi's first university dating back to 1070.

Tomorrow - our last two days, and hopefully some of the best. Halong Bay is one of the most spectacular places in the whole of Vietnam - according to the rough guide and my daughter Katie. We spend the day, night and next morning floating among the 3000 limestone peaks that jut out of the emerald green water. A relaxing end to an amazing holiday. I hope to blip these last two days from this hotel where we spend Sunday night before an early flight home on Monday. The forecast is good!!

Scooter and bike diary: some crackers today:
Masses of flowers front and back of a bike
Eggs - hundreds from foot to over shoulder height, two trays deep
6x4 sheet of plywood strapped to the side
6 bags of cement
Several boxes of bottles of vodka
Fruit of every description
And the piece de resistance - sorry:
An easily identifiable chopped up pig, stuffed into a large poly bag, sitting between the rider's legs!