Day 1 Off to 'nam

4-5/03/13

George Bee and Rob de Smith (2 school mates) arrived at mine around 9.30, I had literally just finished my breakfast and was still in my pyjamas. We left an hour later, after I had cut my hair, showered and dressed, after a small hold up getting out of Tunbridge Wells we cruised the rest of the journey to Heathrow. Baggage check-in, security and passport checks were simple and straight forward, so straight forward that I literally just took my passport out of my pocket (didn't even open it) and the security guard waved me through, I certainly found this slightly worrying. Our flight to Doha was pretty uneventful, apart from watching a load of films. Doha airport itself was pretty impressive, very clean, modern and clinical, a bit like a hospital. We then flew to Bangkok for an hour stop, we weren't allowed off the plane but just had to sit and wait for the other passengers to be replaced. Finally, after 17 hours travel, we arrived in Hanoi. It was really great that we had booked a couple of nights at a hotel in advance, they also advertised free pick up from the airport which was very handy, the only problem was that there was no driver when we arrived, having wandered around for 15 minutes we spoke to a group of taxi drivers, one guy knew the owner of our hotel and thankfully took us in his car. We dropped our bags in our room, a triple room supposedly, it is in fact a double bed with a spare mattress on the floor. We did have a complimentary cup of tea before we took to the streets and we finally ended up on a rooftop terrace with 3 local beers and a view overlooking the city. The view was pretty much non-existent due to the pollution haze. It isn't quite as bad as in Kathmandu but it does make London look like a Dentist's operating room. The roads are chocka block with motorbikes, with a handful of cars, if you don't boldly stride into the traffic you will never cross a road, a rather tricky situation to be in if you ever want to go anywhere. Even though it is only 20.00 here we are all so tired after being awake about 36 hours we're hitting the hay now.