Arrival in Hanoi

After spending 13 hours in the air and 3 hours in Dubai airport, we finally arrived in the old capital, Hanoi. We spent a long time waiting for luggage at Hanoi airport. Baggage carousel 1, the sign said. Yet after an hour of watching everyone else's cases going round and round, we found 1 bag on carousel 2 and the other dumped with a pile of other cases in the corner of the airport. Nothing on carousel 1...

The hotel (Melia Hanoi) is lovely. I emailed ahead to tell them we were celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary. A good move as we were upgraded to a better room on a higher floor. They also left us a dozen red roses, a bowl of fruit and a cake. Although you can see from the photo that it got lost in translation, apparently we are on honeymoon!

We arrived at the hotel at about 3 pm and we headed out for an explore soon after. The area around Hoan Kiem Lake was buzzing with activity and all the traffic had been stopped entering the surrounding area so it was a very pleasant walk with the locals and the various pop-up stalls. A circuit of the lake and then we headed to the Puku bar for a glass of wine and a beer as it was next door to the restaurant that we had already booked - Ngon Villa, recommended by Nigel and Lou.

All you can eat from the menu, you order a few dishes, they bring it, eat it, then repeat... the food was fabulous. We have tried things we have never eaten before - geoduck. A cross between a large clam and a razor clam. It feels like we ordered most of the dishes on the menu - all wonderful. Sky, our waitress, insisted we had dessert; coffee jelly with coconut cream on top, absolutely gorgeous!

We decided to walk back to the hotel. I'm getting the hang of crossing the road. Pick your time, step on the road and keep walking. I found saying a prayer also helped. There are hundreds of scooters and bikes dodging in and out of the traffic. Walking on the pavement is not easy as it also acts as a parking lot for the bikes and scooters. Even when you do manage to walk on the pavement, don't be alarmed when a scooter comes riding along, tooting their horn behind you. The pavements are multi-purpose it appears!

Well, it's been about 30 hours since we left home and we have had no sleep. So an early night for us.