HANOI

Described as the grand old dame of the Orient, Hanoi houses 3.7 million people so it’s a very busy, intense city with allot of ‘beep beep’ as the locals say. Our few days here have kept us busy – from the night markets set up right outside our hotel, to seeing the Mausoleum, Museum and houses of Ho Chi Minh, there has been a few good things to see here. The Lonely Plant kind of ends here with things to see so we just hopped a tour bus for an hour or so and were driven around the city centre. Each street in the centre of town specialises in manufacturing and selling something. For example there are clothes on one street, sunglasses on another street, shoes on another street and so on.
Last night, we bought some outstanding art work from a local artist. Simon and Lindsay bought a piece and so did I. I’m really looking forward to having it framed and hung at home. After our art purchase, we decided to celebrate with a nice dinner. The Gondola Hotel has been open since December and looks just beautiful (so we thought the perfect place for dinner). I think the saying is ‘All fur coat and no knickers’ – it looked good, but we had a quiet giggle when the food was bought out.
As I write this post, we’re on a car headed to Halong Bay for an overnight boat trip

Oh yeah, if we’ve had any ‘down time’ whilst moving about, Lindsay and I have been photographing the most hideously dressed Asian people we can find. So far, the ‘Lady in White’ has very high odds.