Exploring Hanoi

As promised a more detailed overview of our recent tour, starting off with Hanoi city in Vietnam.Hanoi, 26th-28th of FebruaryWe arrived in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, in the evening on the 26th of February with a day to kill before our tour started on the 28th. The first thing we noticed on our drive from the airport to the Victory hotel was the amount of traffic on the roads (most of it motorbikes) and the fact that the horn was an integral part of driving in Vietnam.In fact, the next day one of the first things we had to learn, and nervously put into practice was crossing the road. Due to the huge volume of motorbikes coming from all directions it is just unsafe to look for a gap in the traffic and run across the road. In fact running is the most dangerous thing you could do. Instead, you have to step into the road and slowly walk acoss, this way the motorbikes have time to spot you and move around you as you cross the road. It took a bit of getting used to but it did work and surprisingly well.During our first morning we explored the city on foot and made our way to the temple on the lake and browsed some of the many goods on offer in the shops. In the afternoon we jumped into cyclos for a tour of the city taking in the major sites such as the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. We also stopped off to watch a water puppet show, a speciality of Hanoi, this was very entertaining and done well with puppeteers standing in four feet of water moving puppets on basically two bits of wood. I haven't done it justice in my description but take our word for it, it was entertaining to watch.The next day we explored more of Hanoi of foot and tried to get into the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum to catch a glimpse of the now preserved, former, leader. Unfortunately, we were just too late when we arrived (this can be blamed on a cyclo drvier who chased us down a street) and could not get in so instead walked around the Museum next door which talked about and displayed some of the recent history of Vietnam and the life history of Ho Chi Minh. That evening we met our tour group and leader and all went out for dinner at the Cyclo restaurant to get to know each other. Our tour group was made up of a good mix of nationalities and ages with the youngest at 23 and the oldest at 62.The next day we all jumped on board a mini bus and headed to Halong Bay.....