From then until now. The sapa continues.

John :

So since we last left off. The plans for Friday night involved heading to our favourite bar in HCMC, the GO2Bar. We sat down and there were some cute, rambunctious children running about. So we had a bit of a play and giggle, all the while Shannon was trying to take pictures of them. They wanted to charge us 5000VND, about $1 to take their photo. When we said no, they flipped us off. It was pretty funny.
Anywho, then Jetstar (the Aussie airline) came and gave everyone at Go2Bar some cake, because it was their birthday or some crap.
We gave our cakes to the children who immediately became our best friends. Hard to explain but we have some pretty cool memories and pictures of the kids. I got my drunk on, while this bar tender called Viet entertained us. He was hilarious, he insisted on arm wrestling and continually trying to make us dance. Chatted to him about Australia, and about Vietnam and it was eye opening. We gave him a toy koala that we had, and he named it Tim Cahill (Australian Soccer player). It was funny but also kinda sad watching all his mates and work colleagues wanting to play with it. It was very touching. One day I hope to see Viet in Australia. He was a chipper young fellow, and it's kinda hard to describe him. Just all round ace. A bloke from Wales called Cecil sat down at our table, and we talked a bit more, before we headed back to our hotel at about 11pm. The next morning we were up and about, getting some breakfast and chillaxing waiting for our ride to HCMC airport.

We have been in Hanoi since Saturday, after a kickass flight with Vietnam Airlines.. a 2hour trip on a jumbo jet (Boeing B777) doesn't make sense to me, but I'm not going to argue with it.

Did some shopping Saturday afternoon, and headed to a place called Le Pub for some beer. Hanoi had a french occupation for a lot of it's past, and is still very much french orientated. This leads to excellent shopping, great food, very relaxed (in comparison to HCMC) and unfortunately also has the air of pomposity that is synonomous with the French.

Today we did a tour of the City, checked out a couple of Museums, saw the changing of the guard at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and then to a Restaraunt in Hanoi's Old Quarter for some great lunch. Me and Shannon decided to call it a day, and headed back to our hotel.

I headed off straight away to find a moto to take me a Doctor, as I had been experiencing ear problems for a couple of days. Woke up this morning with a severely sore ear, and could barely hear. Got to the doctor, and near USD$200 and some drugs later, turns out I have an inner ear infection.

Back on the Moto, with the translating help of an armed Vietnamese soldier in front of arrived back to the hotel, where we didnt stay long before heading to a little place we found in our earlier travels, called Half Man, 1/2 Noodle. I intend to come back here tonight and drink some beers.

Apart from that, we head off to do some more touring tomorrow. I believe we have a boat trip thru some rice paddies and other stuff on the cards. And then tomorrow night we head off to Sa Pa on the overnight train. Looking forward to it.

That's all I have for now, we will write soon.

Shannon :
We got to Hanoi yesterday. It's really different from Ho Chi Minh, John likes it better, I don't really.

It has much better shopping in terms of pretty things to bring home and it is easier to haggle, pretty much say "No thank you" and walk away, then they call after you what price you will pay! So far this isvery bad for me and my buying style as I walk away alot and then end up haggling and then I buy something I wanted but could have definately gone without! I bought some silk scarves and a silk shirt yesterday in total cost me about $20US. They're really pretty. I've also got my eye on some a lanterns and some beads and some cute book marks for presents and really awesome weaving from the H'Mong tribes. I want to actually buy the weavings when we go see the tribes in a few days though so I'm holding off.

The buildings are beautiful and it's alot cleaner and definately slower then Ho Chi Minh, but the people aren't as nice and I find it way too slow after the fast pace of Ho Chi Minh. We got a massage yesterday for 30mins, it cost $5US. I'm thinking about visiting a dayspa this afternoon, for 2.5 hours its like $30US - So cheap!

We went on a tour of Ha Noi this morning part of the set up with Sinh Cafe, it was sadly a little bit disappointing due to the fact that although interesting, it would have been good to do outside of a tour as we had to stick to the tours timelines. We went to some pagoda's where some people were holding a funeral - very different from Western funerals. They all wear white. Then we went to the Ethnology Museum which was all about the different ethnic groups in Vietnam, then itwas off to the Ho Chi Minh Mausuleum, unfortunately this time of year they did not have Ho Chi Minh's body on display. I learnt a fair bit about Vietnamese political history which was cool.
We're off on a boat trip tomorrow and then out to Sapa in the evening. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Black H'Mong tribe and the landscape in Sapa.

We had a pretty awesome last night in Ho Chi Minh and a very cool flight up here! They stuck us on a Boeing 777 for a 2 hour flight and had a camera at the front of the plane showing the view on landing and take off - way cool, not only that but they fed us!

I'm a bit bored today, there really isn't that much to do in Ha Noi and I'm struggling with being forced to be still! Our room is nice but small so I've been getting a bit of cabin fever.

Anyway, I must be off, I think we're going to hit a pub and get some din dins. Most of the tourists here are French and a fair bit snobbish so we haven't met anyone cool yet - not like Viet from the Go2Bar (read John's entry).