We left the heat and humidity of Cambodia for the 20 degrees and grey skies of Hanoi.

The first thing you notice in Hanoi is the insane traffic, I would never drive here. The second you notice is the houses. The houses that are not shacks are taller narrower versions of the painted ladies in San Francisco. The city is huge. It has about 10 million inhabitants and all of them travel by motor bike.

The first evening we didn’t even leave the hotel ordering room service even in an international hotel was enough to an adventure.

The next morning I woke at 6 am to the sound of loudspeakers and traffic. I later discovered there are loudspeakers on every street corner in Hanoi and the government broadcasts at 6am every morning.

In keeping with this one of the first things I spotted on our tour of Hanoi was a huge statue of Lenin. It must be one of the few left in the world. We looked at the hours long queue to file past the body of Ho Chi Minh but decided not to join it. His houses and cars seemed to attract equally huge queues.

We were to look at some old temples and pagodas but decided we had seen enough of them and instead we went to the ethnology museum and walked around the “36 streets”. The old quarter of Hanoi. We watched people cooking and eating lunches on the pavement and in doorways, this is Hanoi street food. There are also women walking around with a yolk across their shoulders carrying baskets on either end with food for sale.

At one stage our guide told us everyone was talking about us. At this stage I am used to people staring because they don’t see many fair children but the guide said the really shock this time was the number of children we have.

Four children is unheard of in Vietnam.

We did brave a walk in Hanoi to a restaurant that night. The trick to crossing the road apparently is to walk slowly and steadily and everyone will just avoid you. It works.

We skipped the swan and swallow on the menu in the restaurant though.
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