Arrived In Hanoi

Today we checked out of our hotel in Ninh Binh, and got a coach headed for Hanoi. It was only 45,000 Dong (£1.50) for the 2 hour journey, but the bus was quite a small and uncomfortable. I didn't really mind about how crap the bus was, until we arrived at the bus station. There was a flock of men surrounding us shouting 'Taxi!', it was like a crowd at a gig or something. If we had taken a bigger bus with other tourists we wouldn't have been such targets, but because everyone on our bus was Vietnamese, when we got off the taxi drivers homed in on us. They started grabbing us and pulling us in all different directions, so eventually we gave in and got a taxi to our hotel.

We were both feeling pretty stressed out from how hectic Hanoi was, but after dropping our bags off at the hotel and getting some good home comfort food (KFC!) we started to see another side to the city. Our hotel is quite near the old quarter, so we took a walk down to the Hoam Kiem Lake. Hoam Kiem, and everything on it is illuminated with bright colourful lights and lanterns that change colour. The lake has two islands, and a bright red 'Huc Bridge' which were also illuminated in coloured lights. I got a few good photos, but I don't have a tripod with me, so some of these photos are hand held and some are using what was around to lean on.