In Hanoi

24/5/11 to 29/5/11

  Made it down to Hanoi with Gracie, and as I'm staying in the old quarter the roads are norrow and lots of people, still it's a nice place to walk around when you know how. There are lots of Bia Hoi (cheap beer) places here, although the people here in the north (to me) seem to be worse for ripping you off than in the south some I get the impression just think foreigners are ATM's, one bike shop wanted to charge me $25 to look at the bike where as one closer to Sapa spent half an hour on the bike and didn't charge anything because he couldn't fix it. Obviously I just laught at the guy here and rode off.

  Did enjoy some KFC, first in a while, although saying that I do mainly eat chicken over here as they fry the shit out of beef and pork so it normally isn't that great, this means i'm getting sick of chicken , I need fish. I am very happy to be able to read the menu again and it didn't take long to find out the difference between (one thing) from the south and the north, in the south fried is chien up here it is rang, haven't managed to find out why yet. Now some of you will not like this bit, I had dog (knowingly) the other day which was interesting, it has lots of fat so is obviously breed for eating, the fat is sort of like pork but the meat is sort of like beef which makes it quite sweet they do leave the skin on though which is chewie so didn't eat much of that.

  Met a guy at Bia Hoi courner the othert day who works for a charity motorbike place, they train young Vietnamese to fix bike so they will have a better chance of getting a job, and he told me I might be able to sell my bike at VIP bikes here. This wasn't the case but the man there was very helpful and put me onto another place that does buy and sell bike speicially for the trip down Vietnam. Yes I have sold Gracie only got $200 for her, which means it cost less than $100 a month.

  Ok i'll be staying here ish till probably the 9^th June when I will fly to Beijing, train prices have gone up a lot going by the travel people here so is much cheaper to fly. Once I get the China visa I will do a 3 day/2 Night tour to Ha Long Bay, not looking forward to doing the bus thing but some times you have to suffer to have a good time. Also William has managed to get me another phone which is the same as the last one and he is going to freight it up to Beijing for me so will be able to take photos again soon, although not in Ha Long bay oh well I get to see it hehe if you want to see it, come over here yourself, it is worth it just from the other parts I've seen.

  Anyway hope everyone is well and those of you who want me to call at some point will have to send me your mobile numbers again.

  Enjoy your life. I am.