Hanoi - Vietnams Northern Capital

Bridge:  Because we arrived late we weren't up to tracking down buses etc so we booked a hotel from the airport tourism desk.  Unfortunately Quint lost his cell phone - I think when we were getting out of the taxi.
The hotel room itself was nice but the fridge, geyser and safe all weren't working.  We were also promised a big buffet breakfast included in the room price, but that consisted of 3 slices of sandwich ham - that was going off - and 3 small triangles of bread.  Pacific Prince Hotel it was called.

We were woken by loud traffic and honking horns.  it seems that noone in Vietnam has a drivers license or ever took a road test!  In Vietnam, traffic is supposed to drive on the righthand side of the road, but everyone just drives where's most convenient for them.  Pedestrian crossings, stop streets and intersections mean nothing to these people - let alone "right of way!" and roundabouts.  The streets are dirty - running water fulled with the previous nights dinner leftovers flow along the pavements and hygiene is clearly non-existent.  We struggled to find street stalls and markets selling cheap local dishes and the restaurants that looked slightly decent had New York price tags attached to their meals - local or not.

We had been warned that countless tour companies offered tours to Sa Pa and Ha Long bay and that it was difficult to decipher which was good value.  So we took a chance and bought a 3-day, 2-night Halong Bay tour from the first "decent-looking" (p.s. wrong approach!) travel agency we came across.  They also had cheaper rooms on offer so we moved out of Pacific Prince to Espence Hotel and Tour Agency.