Day 211, Hanoi, Vietnam

Flower street

Day one in Vietnam and I absolutely love it already. Vietnam is a little more like India than Thailand was.

After breakfast we booked our tickets on the night train to Sa Pa, a town in the north of Vietnam. It's known for its beautiful scenery, mountains and rice fields, so rather than spend the next 3 days around the city we decided to go up there.

At the lake

We walked around the lake that's right in the middle of the city, and it was just lovely, a really nice feel to it. People reading on benches, knitting, chatting. 

Two things stand out in the city. First of all, scooters. Everyone rides one, there would be twenty scooters to one car. They zoom past you, left and right, and it's a blessing most streets are one way, so you only have to mind one direction. They're pretty courteous though and will slow down for you and happily swerve to get around.

Scooters everywhere 

Secondly, the beautiful old French style houses. This is shabby chic at a whole new level mind you, but they are just so full of character and charm. You have to look up to find them, as the bottom floor is overtaken by sometimes very garish shops; whole streets dedicated to shoes, or flowers or toys. In fact, the street names reflect what goods are sold there, this comes from years ago when the only 'trades' allowed in the street were those mentioned in the street name. 

We had lunch at a street corner, perched precariously like the locals on a tiny plastic stool, eating noodle soup; very scrumptious.

Lunch being cooked

Inger decided she would like to buy an iPad, as you do on holiday, so after a bit of walking around and asking we managed to find one and Inger was pleased as punch.

Time to get back and pick up our tickets for tonight's train, and then dinner time.

The train

We took a taxi to the train station, and after some redirections by station staff, a young lad took care of us and showed us to the right train. The train was just like the sleeper trains on the movies with a little table in between, a lamp, and a door that will shut us in for the night and keep us cozy. What were the chances of having two Danish girls share our compartment; Inger and them happily chatted away in Danish while I'm writing my blog!