Hanoi: I can't cross the road.

While planning our trip to Vietnam we, of course, asked our friends who had been there how they liked it and what their experience was like. We invariably got two answers: the first half of our friends said that they loved Vietnam so much. They want to go back and live there forever with the wonderful Vietnamese people and among some of the most beautiful scenery they have ever seen. The other half said they hated Vietnam and anyone associated with it. The people there cheat and lie and never give you an honest answer or opinion. You lose so much money getting ripped off that you're forced to leave earlier than planned. It's a lousy country full of jerks.

Hmm. Makes you a little nervous, no?

So, about a week ago we hopped on a bus (Korean made, of course) in Vientiane and tried to mentally prepare ourselves for the next 24 hours. We would have no reclining chairs, no leg room, few bathroom breaks, one very long break at the border (where who knows what will happen with finicky or bribe crazed border officials) and will try, to no avail, to sleep on a small bus absolutely packed to the brim with smoking, vomiting, coughing locals. Indeed, they even set up plastic chairs in the aisle of the bus to accomodate more people. Add this to the twisting, winding mountain roads of Laos and you can guess how I felt about the whole venture. Not great. But I took a xanax and, after the first of only two pit stops, managed to put myself to sleep. Unfortunately for Pat, he had no pills to take and was constantly used as a pillow for the guy sitting in the asile next to him.

Soooo, the bus wasn't great and certainly isn't recommended unless, like us, you are absolutely stuck in Vientiane for days and are behind schedule. We wanted to mosey on through Laos at a snail's pace, but we needed our Vietnamese Visas and it was a long weekend. No moseying allowed.

We arrived at the Vietnamese border at approximately 8AM. We fought a huge crowd of backpackers and sharp elbowed Laos women (no such thing as a line up) and somehow managed to get stamped out. We got a shady meal of pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) sans meat on the Laos side of the border and realized that our bus had already gone through to the other side. We had to walk to the Vietnamese side of the border, about 500 metres away. No biggie.

We paid the border guards an American dollar each (it was "required", but not required) and got through into Vietnam without incident. I was a little nervous ever since news of that girl from Britain being sentenced to death in Laos got out (she says she never saw the heroin before, and I didn't want anyone to plant stuff in my bag so I duct taped it like a madwoman so I would know if it had been touched by someone). But there were no such incidents; nothing to worry about, and we got through to Vietnam with no problems.

Back on the bus and finally in Vietnam, we still had about 12 hours to go until we arrived in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. I don't want to talk about the next 12 hours. They were long and boring and when we stopped for lunch I saw a big rat in the lady's bathroom. What I also noticed was that there was finally some noise in the background. In Laos you only hear passing traffic and that's about it. In Vietnam people are screaming at each other, singing songs, puppies are crying in their cages, birds are screeching in theirs, people are selling you stuff at the sides of the road (and they even climb on your bus when it stops). I missed the social butterfly-ness that was so lacking in Laos. It was a nice touch. Plus, people were smiling at me again. Thank God! For the longest time I thought I was walking around Laos with a dirty face or something. No one EVER smiled at me, ever! Don't get me wrong, Laos was amazing and the people were very kind and hospitable, but that doesn't mean they like you.

So finally, at 7PM, exhausted and dusty, we arrived in Hanoi.

A man on our bus stood up, introduced himself and said that he would take us to the old city (where all the accomodation is) for free if we would take a look at his guesthouse. We took a look and it was too expensive, but we were so tired that we paid 16$ US for two nights and had, for the first time, hot water and cable TV (with BBC Newsworld) in one room. Since then we have realized that guesthouses in Vietnam have amazing value for the money you're paying. We've had hot water and cable TV (even swimming pools) for 10$ a night. Anyway, we paid more than usual, but we were happy with the free breakfast and free internet and the comfy bed and morning cartoons.

When we awoke the next day we were pleasantly surprised by my friend, not only from university in Canada, but from Korea as well, Genevieve and her boyfriend Scott, who were in Hanoi at the same time as us and who were staying just down the road from us. I was so happy to see them! Sometimes it's hard to meet people if you're backpacking as a couple- the singles tend to stick to themselves- and I was feeling a bit friend deprived after saying goodbye to our friends in Luang Prabang, so Gen and Scott were a great addition to our travels.

We all decided to book the same trip to Halong Bay and then to meet up for dinner and a traditonal water puppet show later that evening. We booked a nice looking trip on a traditional junk for the next three days and arranged where we would meet later on. Then, Pat and I took off to explore the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

I loved this city! The climate was cooler than we had been getting in Laos and Thailand, which was a nice surprise. The buildings, some in shambles and some looking quite spiffy, were the traditional colonial French buildings we had been seeing in Laos, but the streets were winding and full of motorbikes and cars that didn't care if they ran over pedestrians. It was hard to learn to cross the street, even though the streets themselves were very narrow and it would only take half a second to cross. Everywhere you go there is a constant scream of horns honking as everyone tries to maneuver themselves around the city.

We grabbed a typical Vietnamese snack, known as a pate baguette, which actually has no pate inside. It's a homemade, crusty baguette filled with all kinds of seasoned and smoked meat, some fresh cilantro and cucumber and then drizzled with a chili sauce. It's delicious. And worth risking running to the bathroom immediately after eating it (not that we ever had to, but you never can trust street food). It only cost 10,000 Vietnamese Dong, or about 75 cents Canadian.

Anyway, with baguette in hand, we took to the streets of the old city. We walked the diameter of the lake, which had a small island with a pretty buddhist temple on it. Then we walked through the market where I saw lots of cool spices and found some coffee beans that a weasel pooped out before they were collected and roasted (poop coffee is all the rage these days, but it's generally cats that I thought pooped it out- not weasels). Needless to say, I bought some for my Dad.

We went to an old traditional house that was restored and turned into a museum which shows you how the merchants of the old city lived at the turn of the century (called Memorial House). It was nice to see how the streets were organized according to what trade they were selling- it makes me understand Korean culture a bit better, actually, since there are still entire streets in Seoul devoted to selling the exact same thing.

We wanted to go visit Uncle Ho's corpse at the Ho Chi Min Masoleum but unfortunately you can only visit in the morning, so we missed our chance. No problem, we had a cup of tea at a roadside cafe, wrote some postcards to family back home and made our way back to our hotel where we watched movies on HBO.

We met up with Gen and Scott and had dinner at "Little Hanoi"- a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet. It was standard, serving more Western dishes than Vietnamese (although I ordered their traditional claypot eggplant and it was delicious). In my opinion, you should stay away from any business recommended in the Lonely Planet. Why? Because while they may be inexpensive and honest businesses when the author stays there, it still takes two years for the publication to come out. By the time you read the recommendation, the owners have already become cocky and raised their prices. At least, that's been 90% of our experience. The businesses that are striving to be recommended by LP are the best places to stay and eat. Actually, the best places to eat are the markets and food stalls if we're going by taste and not sanitation.

After dinner we got a cheap and tasty Bia Hanoi at a street restaurant and then made our way to the puppet theatre. The performance was one of the best I've seen in all of Southeast Asia. The music was absolutely amazing! I loved the guy playing the flute and the two women singers that just sat there fanning themselves, clearly bored to tears, but still making beautiful music. The puppeteers were on one side of a curtain and the puppets came out dancing and making everyone laugh . Of course, all of the puppets were in the water so they showed special stories like "fishing" and "working in the rice fields", etc etc. It was very cool!

Stay tuned for our Halong Bay, Sapa and Hoi An experiences...