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i can be a bit of a cocky one. as i flew into singapore the morning, no wait the afternoon of the 7th july, i thought i'd be able to coast through jetlag and treat it like an "all nighter" but without the alcohol. ha, only then as we touched ground i realised that there was more to it than just putting your body through immense amounts of sleep dep and slowly it dawned on me that it was gonna be pretty bloody tough it i didn't act quick! so i did. i then landed in hanoi, vietnam, at around 14:00 local time and 7am UK time. oh shit, man! in a nut, i'd been away for more than 24hrs and travelled:

morpeth - london roughly 200-300 miles (?)

london - singapore 6754

singapore - hanoi 1358

figured best thing to do is get at least some sleep then power through, so i did, and it honestly worked wonders. three hrs later, i begin to stir and next thing i know seven members of our dorm are heading out in search of cheap and tasty noodles. one guy who'd been here a week, james, his name was, though has left today as money's running out and he knows someone in hong kong (not sure if hong kong would be my prime destination if i was runing low on funds?!?!), took us to a restaurant that lived up to our hopes of tasty and cheap. seven of us rock up to find the streets already overspilling with radge customers (another thing you'll notice that pavements are virtually non-existant and by that, beer lovers, food indulgers and pedestrians have to dodge traffic that way also!). obviously not wanting to miss out on feeding seven rather obvious backpackers, they usher us up to the second floor (the middle floor being where they cook the meal and clean up the crap) and we're place at on chairs and at a table which are quite significantly lower than anything i ever sat at at first school! we felt enormous in comparison. food was amazing and i think the bill only came to the equivalent of one pound fifty each including beers.

people talk about culture shock. they mention sights, smells and other things like that. this is my first time in the far east and i've admittedly never been further east than croatia. with regard to culture shock, all i can say is, watch out for the motorcycles! holy crap, they're EVERYWHERE carrying the most insane (and often obtrusive) objects possible. i saw a family of four on one, darting round a cement mixer that nearly ploughed into our mini bus from the airport. oh hang on, after half an hour i suddenly realised that death on hanoi's roads wasn't imminent, and that's just how they drive. seriously, if it's too busy for them (you can't even compare to back home) they drive on the pavement, no-one goes in one direction, the horn's used for pretty much everything (as far as i can see!) and they take no prisoners! i was stood gaping at one cross roads. literally thousands of bikes then fleeshed past, darting in and out of buses, taxis and other big, motarised, metal objects. no one flinches and off they pop. so funny. literally, though, if you wanna cross the road, you've got to take a deep breath and just walk, watching all directions, or more simply, latching yourself onto a local and tailgating them across five lanes of traffiv.

xe.com has proved to be my trusty friend, while i incessently flip between dong, dollars and sterling. pulling out a million dong made me feel momentarily rich, until i realised it only clocks in at just over thirty quid!

staying at hanoi backpackers' hostel i couldn't have picked a better hostel to ease me into the madness of this city (and maybe country). it almost definitely softened the blow of fear of not meeting anyone and being stumped! seriously, its been a breeze and that place is filled with travellers, most of which want to hear other tales and share a beer at the drop of a hat. i was also secretly loving the air con in our dorm. ha ha ha cheating, eh?

more on hanoi and our ventures from north to south later. battling more rain and 50p beer beckons.

oh yeah, and sporadic adding of photos can be found here, though my monthly limit is nearly full: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ktshopsatlidl/