Vibrant Vietnam

Vietnam was idyllic and chaotic all in one. Arriving on Wednesday night we saw Hanoi at its busiest. Motorbikes everywhere and nobody paying much attention to traffic lights. There is a talent in crossing the street. You just have to step out into the traffic and make your way across the street as the motorbikes weave around you. It's quite common to see four people on a motorbike and babies lying across the laps of drivers, held there by one hand as the driver steers with the other.

On Thursday we ventured to Halong Bay which is even more beautiful than the pictures lead you to believe. Over 200 small islands to cruise around, all with dramatic cliffs. We spent two nights aboard the Junk and there was nothing junk about it. There were seven staff onboard to six passengers so we were very well looked after. The other passengers were a good-natured couple from Switzerland, Monique and Bernard, who seemed more amused by our daughters than annoyed by them. We had some fun conversing in both French and English. We enjoyed three sea kayaking trips and the girls were both quite amazing at paddling so we just might have to investigate doing some more soon. There are several floating fishing villages dotted around the islands and it was fascinating to see how these people lived. A floating school is a part of each village.

Back in Hanoi we celebrated Lunar New Year with all the crowds and hundreds of scooters around the Hoan Kiem lake, complete with fireworks. For the next two days we explored the sights of Hanoi -a daytime walk around the lake, visited temples, got lost in back alleys, tasted the acclaimed Pha noodle dish, played at a rather tired old looking children's amusement park, had a ride on a cyclo and enjoyed a trip to the water puppet theatre. The water puppet theatre was traditionally performed by farmers in rice paddies. The puppeteers stand waist deep in water and manipulate the puppets on long bamboo sticks. It was in Vietnamese but as it was mainly actions it didn't really matter. Many of the buildings are really thin and tall which apparently goes back to the day when shops were charged taxes according to the width of the shop face. Hanoi has been called the Paris of Asia and the French influence is obvious in some of the architecture but it all needs a good scrub down if its to look anything like Paris. It was fun being there for the celebrations, and learning about the Vietnamese customs at this time, but the downside (for me anyway)was that many of the shops were closed for the new year. Might have felt a bit more like Paris if I was carrying around a few shopping bags.