Hanoi

Well, Eden and I arrived safely in Hanoi late at night on December 16th. We arranged for a pick-up from the airport from the hotel we booked with, the Stars Hotel. It had a pretty good review in the Lonely Planet, so we thought we'd give them a try. However, when we got to the Stars Hotel this guy opened the car door for us and said that there were no rooms and that we should go to their "other" hotel. Given that sometimes in Asia this is a not so clever ploy to get you to go to a dodgy hotel from what is probably a fairly decent one. So Eden and I demanded to go inside and speak to the person incharge. As it turns out, Stars Hotel frequently overbooks their rooms, and then sends the people to their other hotel, the Hoa Linh. So we were rather upset, given that it was nearly one in the morning, we had already paid a deposit on the room, and it looked like they were trying to scam us. Realizing that we were at a loss, (other hotels had pulled their metal screens down for the night), we decided to check the Hoa Linh out then make a choice. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that it is a rather nice hotel! I suppose they just use the Stars Hotel to make the bookings because it has the good write up in the Lonely Planet, even though the Hoa Linh is nicer.

So the past two days in Hanoi have been rather pleasant. The old quarter is lovely, and there are loads of wonderful restaurants. Today Eden and I went to the Ho Chi Minh Masoleum and Museum and it was quite interesting. We also met up with Felicity, a girl we travelled with this summer in China. She's been living in Hanoi for the last two months and she heads back home to England this week after a year of travelling.

On Monday we will leave for a three day trip to Halong Bay, where we will do some sea kayaking and staying on a Chinese junk touring amongst the limestone cliffs. Should be rather fun.