Today was a day of goodbyes to Laos and our travel guide Ning, followed by a hello to Hanoi and our new guide Nhan.

In between there was a fair bit of hanging around, in part down to the rain in Laos and the delay in our flight meaning we didn’t arrive in Vietnam until 5pm.

In between times, we managed to do and see some stuff.

Andy ignored the rain and got another early morning run in snaking his way around Vientiane to his 10k target.

Post breakfast we said our goodbyes to our guide Ning and Michelle & Cathy our two Aussies who were heading home via Singapore.

The rest of the morning was spent staring either at a book, travel guide or the rain, before we departed at midday to the airport and our Laos Airways flight to Hanoi. , headed out in the rain at 7am for a 10k run around Vientiane.

Once at the airport, we relaxed with a ‘crisp’ lunch & caught up with some more reading, before eventually leaving a hour late to Vietnam.

The flight whilst delayed, turned out to shorter than expected at sub an hour and after a relatively smooth flight and the return of the sunshine we arrived in Hanoi late afternoon.

Customs & baggage collection were straightforward and within an hour we were on a coach heading into this mega city of 9m people with its mass of motorbikes.

We are staying in the Old Town close to the French quarter and after our meet and greet with our new guide Nhan and two additional group members Shaun and Christie.

With hunger pains kicking in, we arrived at a cool Vietnamese restaurant called Koto where we were treated to a set menu of Pho pork soup, chicken thighs, beef joint with sticky rice and vegetables, followed by fruit in a coconut milk. It was a big hit and was a great intro to this new country.

After dinner we had a brief wander around the area close to the hotel, to pick up snacks for our trip to Ha Long Bay tomorrow and the all important cash withdrawal to keep us going for the next few days.

We are both impressed with what we’ve seen to date in Hanoi and looking forward to our next 10 days exploring the wider country.