Good morning Vietnam. Sam in Hanoi!

Ahhhh  vietnam, i love youuuu. 

We arrived in Vietnam on the 8th august, so 5 days ago. We have only been to Hanoi and Ha long bay so far and already it's my favourite country we've visited. I think coming from China where there isn't really a backpackers vibe and a huge cultural difference makes Vietnam a breath of fresh air, which is why we have fallen in love with it here so quickly. It's nice to have western toilets, fresh air and no spitting. The Vietnamese are lovely people and i love that they still wear their straw cone hats and carry their fruit on balance baskets (called a yoke). We did have one hiccup whilst in our taxi from the airport to our hostel. Our taxi driver was  pulled over whilst driving on the high way, a man dressed in what looked like a builders onesie asked the driver to get out and they disappeared somewhere behind us for about 20mins. Having been in the country only an hour and sitting in a taxi on the side of the road, with out the driver, we were safe to say 'scared for our lives'. Luckily this is apparently a routine check so the driver came back and we drove off. 

Hanoi is the capital and its a tiny city so you can walk everywhere. Tiny lanes filled with shops, restaurants and hotels surround a big lake. The lake is very picturesque with a cute bridge into the middle to get to a temple. 

We are staying in Hanoi backpackers hostel (down town), which is actually the central spot to begin the partying in Hanoi. Vietnam actually has an 11pm curfue so bars and clubs close at this time. But the hostel organise 'pub crawls' every night which basically means we move to the next open club once the bar closes. The chinese whisper is that the clubs pay the police to stay open after 11pm. The vibe in this hostel is very lively and it's pretty much just westerners (a lot of british) that stay here.

We arrived at the hostel from the airport in the evening and we decided to join the pub crawl. It's good to get involved straight away as we talked to so many other travellers giving us advice and ideas for our trip. 

The first day was spent exploring Hanoi and learning how to scooter dodge. Everyone travels by mopeds/scooters here so there are zillions on the tiny streets. I don't think they have a high way code so they'll weave in and out to get past people, fruit stands and cars. It can be scary if you make a bad move but the Vietnamese are very skilled in dodging people.

On our third night here we went quite big which wasnt planned as we had to be up at 6:30 the next morning. 4 new roomies from England moved into our dorm and we all decided to do the pub crawl. As we were at the hostel bar so early in the evening we took full advantage at being first in line for the free shots they do every hour. Cj got particularly drunk and couldn't keep quiet whilst we were eating street food at the end of the night. When the police drive past in their army trucks the street food restaurants turn off the lights so they look closed, trying to get Cj to be quiet was a challenge. Luckily he probably wasn't the loudest as there was a few westerners outside the club.

My alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning and i was up and ready to get breakfast at 7am. Cj felt rough (yes, he finally got a hangover) and lost a flip flop which was unlucky as we were going on a trip to Ha long bay and this is a boat party where flip flops were needed, Haha.

Ha long bay is one of the prettiest sights i have ever seen. The mythical story is that whilst Vietnam were being invaded the jade emperor sent a  dragon to Ha long bay to drop emeralds from the mother dragons mouth into the sea, the emeralds grew into mountains (a defence wall) which crashed all of the invaders ships and Vietnam won the war. There was 50 of us all together on the castaway trip which was 2 boats. We were all together for the day and night so we all got to know each other. The food provided by the boat owners was delicious and the kayaking around the bay was so fun. We rowed in and out of caves and the views of the bay were amazing (unfortunately we have no pictures as we were in the kayaks) 

The evening on the boat kicked off with a drinking game. It was a more active version of ring of fire. You basically pick a card, and that card means you have to do something, we all decided that card 8 was the worst as it meant stupid/sexy dancing on a chair in front of everyone until the next card 8 is picked. Cj was first to get this card and managed to pick it twice. There was a lot of swapping clothes, and lots of cards that meant drink. After the drinking game we all jumped over to the other boat for the disco. This was a good laugh and didn't end until about 4am. 

We returned to Hanoi the next afternoon and checked into a hotel which actually worked out the same price as the hostel dorms (sooo cheap). We decided to go for a hotel room as we were absolutely shattered and had about 5 hours sleep over the last 2 nights. We ended up sleeping through our alarm and woke up 20mins before check out. Gaahhh!!!

And now, i am on the top bunk of a 12 hour sleeper train on my way to Hue which is our next stop. We should arrive at 10:45am tomorrow morning.

Hanoi has been fun, but i think i want to see a bit more of Vietnam's culture, 

which Hue should offer as its a bit more relaxed then Hanoi.