What Green Cross Code?

Well, here we are in northern Vietnam.  The decision to fly was certainly the right one for us in our advancing years - apart from the usual hanging around at airports it was a breeze and we were soon in the mayhem of Hanoi.  We'd previously booked a guesthouse so were able to check straight in without having to wander around looking for somewhere suitable.
We are now multi-multi millionaires as there are 30,000+ Vietnamese Dong to the pound.  If we were careful with the '0's in Laos it's even worse here and Carol regularly tries to give 10,000 Dong instead of 100,000 (better that than the other way round!).
Hanoi's traffic is crazy!  They seem to drive on any side of the road and regularly go across red lights and certainly don't stop at crossings for pedestrians.  The Lonely Planet guidebook suggests that if you don't want to end up like a fly on the windscreen then you don't rush across the road between vehicles but walk slowly and steadily - the idea being that the vehicles will then drive around you.  Somewhat scary the first time but amazingly it does work and we're still here to tell the tale.  Vietnamese are worse than Italians with the hooter so as well as being crazily busy it's also very noisy!

We went to a water puppet show on our second evening as it's traditionally Vietnamese and specifically from Hanoi.  It was quite strange but interesting and accompanied by a group of musicians playing traditional instruments and singing traditional songs.

 After only 1 full day in Hanoi we headed out on a 3 day/2 night tour of Halong Bay.  It's another World Heritage Area and is absolutely beautiful karst scenery.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable few days with someone else doing the organising and not having to worry about where to sleep and what to eat.  What made it even better was that we were upgraded for the first day and night on the junk boat (the second night was staying in a beach resort).  It seems the boat we booked was full so 4 of us were moved - the 4 older people, so it is good to be old sometimes!  We were told not to tell the others what we'd paid as 'they'd paid a lot of money for the trip'.  The cabin was fantastic and so was the quality and presentation of the food.  The next day we were back with our original group but the facilities at the beach (a bamboo beach bungalow on a private beach) and the food were still very good.

As soon as we returned from this we had a 2 hour turn around and were then off to catch the night train up in to the mountains.  This was a 4 night/3 day tour organised for us.  We were in a soft sleeper with 2 others and while we didn't sleep all night we did get some shut-eye.
As soon as we arrived in Sapa we went on a walk led by a lady from the local Black Hmong hill tribe.  There was the inevitable hard sell of their souvenirs but we got hardened up to it after buying from the young girls who accompanied us.  Their English was amazing - all picked up from talking with tourists - and puts us to shame.  We had a free afternoon and evening in Sapa at the hotel and the next morning set off with the same local guide for a longer 'trek' through rice paddies and stayed in a homestay.  We really enjoyed this and it made us realise how much we all have and how little they have.  The lady who was our guide is married with 2 young children, but she and her husband can't afford to buy a pig or a water buffalo and only have enough land to grow rice to feed them for 5 months.  Rice then has to be bought at around $2 per kg.  (A pig costs $5 per kilo).  Many children don't go to high school because 'it's expensive' ($80 per year).

Last night we returned to Hanoi on the night train.
Today we've been to the Prison Museum (where the Vietnamese were held as political prisoners during French rule and where the Americans were held by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War).  Apparently the French treated them very badly but they treated the Americans extremely well!
Tomorrow we plan to visit the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and then catch the night bus south to Hue (it's a sleeping bus - the seats lay out almost flat so hopefully we'll get some sleep).