Hanoi, Vietnam

There are some terrible stereotypes about Vietnam, things such as they eat dog, that the women are gorgeous and that they are excellent con-men. As with all stereotypes, it is all completely true. 10 minutes after arriving in downtown Hanoi, two bicycles went by, each with two dogs in bamboo cages... There is a vague possibility that the bike owners were transporting their favourite pets across town, but I think not. At a cafe this morning, there was "hot fried dog" on the menu, which is not to be confused with "fried hot-dog", one is fried pooch with lots of chillies and the other is something you eat downtown Cleveland after the baseball game... I asked the hotel manager (girl, gorgeous) about it and she told me it was a delicacy and is always eaten on business occasions. I ironically asked if they also ate cat. She smiled, shook her head and said "oh no... it is much too expensive...". Fine.
The girls are disgracefully attractive, enough to make any red-blooded man get whiplash as they whiz by on their mopeds. They also have a more european fashion sense, so skirts and high-heels will be seen more often then elsewhere in Asia. Must stop now. Cold shower. Think of Margret Thatcher.
Although semi-communist, haggling is ingrained in the culture here, but as opposed to Turkey or Morocco where the seller will start with a price that is between 2 to 5 times the standard price, the Vietnamese will start with a price that can be up to 50 times the final price. Great fun, but it takes about 2 hours to settle on a price for a motorbike ride across town, which is also better than any Disneyland ride. Imagine 5000 mopeds all driving on the same road, where there is only space for about 500. Now imagine no traffic lights (or at least no adherance to their meaning) and now imagine sitting on the back of a moped which is dicing through all this traffic at 50kmh.

It is certainly a complete culture shock after three super-relaxed weeks in Laos. Vientiane international airport was also highly amusing - the department of civil aviation sits beside the runway, there are chicken coops beside the terminal building and a sum total of 3 gates. It knocks Luxembourg off the top spot in my "Cutest airport" list.

Joke of the day: Nguyen is romping around with a dog on the street, then his mum calls out to him "Hey Nguyen, stop playing with your food"... Well it was funny when I first thought of it.

Off to Halong Bay tomorrow for three days on a boat.