Vietnam - Hanoi

We did manage to get up for the sunrise at 5.30am, and it was a beautiful sunrise but did not last long - see the last extra. I took some photos from the deck and then went back to our cabin to shower and get ready for kayaking at 7.30am. Only Gavin and I turned up for the kayaking so we had a wonderful time with our kayaking guide. It was so peaceful on the water and wonderful to see the karsts close up and watch the eagles flying overhead. We actually dropped anchor in Lan Ha Bay last night, not Ha Long Bay, as it is much quieter with less boats and not at all frenetic. I was expecting this visit to be loud and noisy with party boats but it was nothing like that at all. We kayaked into Ha Long Bay this morning and there were many more boats there and sadly quite a bit of pollution in the water.

After kayaking we had a late breakfast on board the boat and then headed back to the terminal where we disembarked and was met by Shaun our guide. We set off for Hanoi which was about 2.5 hours. Shaun dropped us off at our hotel, The Metropole, which is very grand and in the posh part of the city - so different from the real Hanoi. It was also great to get back to wifi and pick up the messages we had missed yesterday, it was admittedly a bit frustrating being out of contact. Not sure how my blip got uploaded last night, I did try for well over an hour and it finally went through.

Gavin and I had a free hour so had a walk around the old part of the city, we soon got the hang of crossing the roads and negotiating the traffic. The streets here are chaotic and crazy, but somehow the system works. When crossing a road you just walk at a steady pace into the traffic, never slowing down or speeding up, and by some miracle the cars, scooters, bicycles and motorbikes avoid hitting you! It is frightening the first time you do it but you soon get used to it. In the old part of town the streets are narrow and there are no pavements to walk on as the shops all spill out onto the pavements and there are scooters and motorbikes parked on the pavements so you have to walk in the road with all the traffic. This image shows what the streets look like, and I have got an extra of some Hanoi scenes and another extra of some panning images to show the frenetic traffic. Many people wear face masks here, apparently the women have always worn face masks to protect their faces from the sun as they like to be as pale as possible.

We got back to our hotel and was met by Tu, a food blogger who does street food tours. He put us in a Grab (same as an Uber) to get to the meeting point where we met up with the six other people joining us on the food tour. Tu was fantastic, he told us all about the food and warned us not to eat too much as we were visiting about 6 or 7 vendors. The street food is literally cooked on the street - people have limited facilities so meat is cut up outside and cooked on the pavements. Don't even think about health and hygiene ratings, it's a non starter! We ate the most delicious food, all made with fresh ingredients and local herbs and vegetables that we don't get in the west. I only drank water but Gavin said the beer was pretty awful. But the food...oh my word it was incredible! I would never have the courage to have ordered off the street if we were on our own, as the places were seriously dodgy, but it was so tasty. Just makes you think how the sanitised food from our supermarkets back in the UK is so tasteless in comparison. My favourite dish was Miên Trôn Múc.

After the tour finished at about 6.30pm we walked back to our hotel, and then just relaxed in the room, I spent time editing photos. No need for dinner after all the food we had eaten on the tour.

We are now very tired and need to get to sleep as it's an early start tomorrow as we have a full day out in Hanoi and we are also going to the Quang Phi Tau incense village.