Hanoi

We can now join vets and say that we've been to 'Naam. Our welcome to Hanoi consisted of a fairly grubby infra-red in ear thermometer being pushed into our ears, swine flu is becoming rather irritating to say the least. We, with the help of the airport security found a reliable taxi company that took us to our hotel. There was a noticeable rise in comfort and vast drop in fun in the hotel compared to a hostel. We had our first taste of street food which was very cheap even considering the fact that we were ripped off. After a great night sleep we decided to move to a much more social hostel that had pretty good facilities including a BBQ on the roof.

After we settled in, we headed out to explore and quickly located "Lenin Park" where Alex and i challenged the locals to some football. There was no arguements who were the better players, even if it did cost us the skin on our feet and a couple of toenails. We then drank coconuts by the side of Thein Quang Lake, awesome!!!!
Yesterday we decided, after getting drenched when the heavans opened, that Tiffany deserved a shopping trip and were delighted to try out a bit of battering and we didn't do too badly but i'm sure our skills will improve. Alex then purchased a great pair of "bose" headphones.

Last night we signed up for "Snake Village" where we first handled snakes before they were slaughterd in preperation for a numerous course meal. The highlights were drinking shots of snake blood complete with heart meat and snake bile (and you thought snake bite was a drink...) which were liquid courage for the four or five courses of snake meat, each prepared in a different way. Then the snake wine (although it tasted and was the strength as whiskey" began to flow. Bad move.

Today we all felt very delicate and so we took it easy, visiting the temple of literature which was very relaxing, after which we grapped dinner which we managed to drag out for an hour or two; The restaurant had air con.... We're just about to jump on a train up to Sa Pa where we're hoping to do some trekking and finnaly discover which of the three of us has the most appropriate footwhere (i hope it's me :D).

Tom