Ha Noi

We arrived at Ha Noi station at 5am and caught a cab to our hostel. We could only check in at midday, but had a really nice breakfast while waiting. We went for a bit of a wander through the city, but as soon as we got to our room we showered and had a snooze. In the evening we walked around again and enjoyed the city sights and the people. Ha Noi seems like a really nice place, the people are friendly and we've had quite a lot of Vietnamese children talk to us in good English. The traffic here is constantly flowing and there's a nice buzz in the city, lots of people gathered together on the pavements eating and playing games. The old part of the city is really interesting, you can definitely see the French influence here.
The next morning we got up feeling all refreshed and keen to be outside again as the weather was beautiful. We were walking along a lake in the middle of the city and Colin got stopped by a Vietnamese guy. He told us that his and his girlfriend's first anniversary was coming up and he was making a video for her telling her how much he loved her. He wanted Colin to read a message to her. This didn't freak us out as much as you'd think as we've got used to random requests like this, although this is the strangest so far. Needless to say, Colin didn't do it.
That night we had a really nice meal at a restaurant that had a separate part of the menu with dishes from France and other European countries, but also a Boerewors dish (South African sausage), which was quite expensive. We opted for Vietnamese food of course and had a delicious chicken curry in a coconut sauce. We ate every bit and went back there another night as well.
It's been really nice walking around this city where we've not been hassled to buy anything and felt free to just look, to see friendly faces and talk to locals and to take in a very interesting city. Also, we've found some really good deals like 6 GBP for a genuine photocopied South East Asia Lonely planet and at a restaurant there was a "buy 3 get 1" offer.

We booked a Ha Long Bay tour for Colin's birthday which was for 3 days and 2 nights.
We leave Ha Noi this afternoon for Hue having really enjoyed our time here.