We're in Hanoi! it is awesome and insane and gross and very very old. Well, the old quarter is old anyway.

We flew in at about 1pm on wednesday and booked a hotel then booked a tour to Sa Pa (city up north near lots of hill tribes) and realised we had to leave at 8:30 that night...so went to cancel the first hotel and had all sorts of problems (including realised our room had been broken in to....by staff!).

Sa Pa was incredible. i wish i could put some photos up but i cant find the port on this computer! in fact i cant even find the back of the computer....it may possibly be stuck back in 1981.

Sa Pa is this town perched on the side of a mountain range and to get there you get a sleeper train (yeh very funny!) to this town called Lao Cai, (5 mins from the Chinese border!!) where every second person is a shoe shiner and people still use horses and carts to take things to the markets. oh, and there is also a woman there who pushes this weird machine around that weighs you and tells you your height and - as if that werent enough - plays old lang seine and christmas carols.
Then you get a mini bus up this winding hill for an hour and a half. The views from our hotel - and in fact everywhere in Sa Pa - are just stunning. there are maountains coming out of the clouds and the valleys are full of rice paddies and creeks, and the local ethnic minorites (like the Hmong - the most vocal of them all) fill the town every day with their handicrafts and traditional dress.

It was bloody cold there though - when the dude finally lit our fire the room filled with smoke and mon and i said our final goodbyes as we went to bed... my stuff still reeks of smoke. could be worse...the toilets are pretty slippery...

Just found tristan on the street! random!