Around the streets in Hanoi

Well, the weather has been grey and chilly since we got here so I haved booked a one way ticket to Laos on Saturday, leaving Frans to do the rest of the trip north by himself.
He will then travel over land across the boarder and we will hook up about 4-5 days later in Luang Prabang Laos.
I am sure he doesn't mind as he can do everything he would like to do and at twice the speed, and not have to listen to me whinge about the cold.
In addition, as much as I would have loved to have seen the scenery, it was at a high elevation and above the clouds in places, therfore no guarantee we would even get to see the beauty given the current weather.
I was really not looking forward to the long train/bus ride up some very hilly terrain either so in all feel good about my decision to go straight to Laos and heve some chill out time.

The past couple of days has been walking around the streets of Hanoi, as a city it doesn't have much to offer in the way of sights, and combined with the dull weather, it has been my least favourite place in Vietnam.
In the old quarter where we are staying the streets are narrow with the usual madness of mopeds going up and down them.
Problem is, they have to park somewhere and as the streets aren't wide enough they park on the pavements leaving pedestrians walking in the road along with cars and bikes all vying for a pathway through.
It's bloody crazy and with all the constant tooting of horns my stress level has gone right up.

All the bikes parked on the pavements force pedestrians into the road, here you can see they are even startin to double park

A space between parked scooters is always a good place for a spot of lunch and looks pretty hygenic too



Or you could burn your rubbish

Is this what they mean by your local 'high street butcher' ?



Get your herbs here and raw meat next door

Picnic on the roadside

I wouldn't want to be an electrician here

I couldn't resist this one for the girls and Mark!

Here is another one for my friend Mark who told me to stop putting up photos of old ladies so he has got one of an old man instead x

So, that's it from Hanoi, we are going to Halong Bay tommorow and the forecast is sunny!!
Let's hope so.

How sad about the earthquake in Christchurch NZ, thankfully Mum and John had left 2 days before so they are fine.