Made it! The flight was OK. Didn't sleep too much because of a screaming baby :o/ Also the seats weren't very wide so the dude next to me kept accidentally hitting me with his elbow. I believe I did the same to him several times tho so its a fair exchange! Cathay Pacific are nowhere near as good as Air NZ!! It wasn't too bad I guess but after flying Air NZ nothing else will compare! Managed to make the connection at HK no probs and sat next to a Canadian couple. Am grateful for the fact that they woke me up when the food came round as I could not keep my eyes open!

When I landed in Hanoi I found the guy holding up my name on a card and headed to the hostel with 2 Dutch guys. They are mentalist drivers here! They swerve all over the place, they cross to the other side of the road, they randomly overtake and use their horns endlessly! There are also heaps of people on scooters and bicycles veering all over the place so its a bit like an obstacle course. Some of them have stuff piled high on their bikes - the most entertaining was a guy riding on the back of a motorbike with half a shop mannequin tucked under either arm. What the hell?!

The hostel is pretty standard really. It's down a narrow street in teh centre of the old quater. It's a pretty crazy place but at least there's not a mental road running past right outside. I managed to cross a couple of roads last ngiht which was impressive. The real challenge comes today I think when I cross major roads as the ones near here aren't too busy in comparison. The hostel had a BBQ last ngiht so I was spared from trying to get myself something to eat last ngiht by going for a burger on the rooftop bar. Was far too tired to cope with much else!

Today I plan to go and find the language school. It was tipping it down earlier but it seems to have stopped now. Apparently it has been raining a lot here recently so I think I'm just gonna have to accept that I'm going to get absolutely soaked sooner or later. At least it's really warm here. It's kinda humid too but not too bad right now.

It's very different to how I remember places like Kuama Lumpar and Bangkok, unless I just don't remember them right. It's so different here and kinda strange but I'm sure once I've been ehre a few days it will get a bit better.

Am also going to try and find myself a room somewhere as I don't think I want to be in a dorm whilst I'm doing the course so I need to go and find something eitehr today or tomorrow. There are so many places here tho that it may be quite time consuming.