We have now arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam. After landing at the airport and changing currency we took the bus to the centre and located our hostel, which has free beer on the hour for ten minutes – woo!
It was pretty much time for dinner so we strolled the night market and found somewhere full of locals. We opted for the mixed hot pot, which involved octopus, muscles, beef, chicken, pork, and prawns. The stove full of soup and veg is placed in front of you and then you cook it yourself. It was great but one of the more expensive meals to have here (you can normally eat for 1USD but this came to about 5USD – how much?!). We’ll be sticking to Pho from now on.
We then just roamed around the streets looking at all the stalls. We’ve both been brought up to cross roads safely, to wait for the green man, to look left and right. Here in Hanoi you would be waiting a year to cross the road if you did that. We’ve been instructed ‘don’t hesitate when crossing the road’. You have to just go for it, the motorbikes will carry on in front and behind you but just keep walking. The motorbikes are EVERYWHERE, not just the roads but alleys too and it’s essentially a chorus of beeping horns all day and night.
