After more than 24 hrs on the 'road', with a layover at Bangkok Novotel Airport Hotel, 23 weary travellers arrived in Hanoi where we were met by Simon Jones, rounding the official team up to a full complement of 24.
Our hotel here in Hanoi is a delightful boutique abode in the old quarter. Authentic, charming and all importantly with temperatures outside reaching 30C, fully functioning air conditioning!  What a relief!
Lunch was a gourmet banquet in a lovely restaurant nearby. I don't think any of us were overly hungry but we certainly managed to clean up the 10 dishes without too much hesitation!
 

For the more adventurous in the group the afternoon was spent exploring the area. Negotiating the traffic is not for the faint hearted, there are a constant stream of scooters, trucks, bicycles, cars and cyclos all beeping incessantly and come from from all directions. Best to just step boldly out and keep walking... to hesitate could be disasterous! 
Simon, bless him, revealed he was utterly terrified of the process so there was a lot of hand holding required to ensure he negotiated each crossing safely. It's now rumoured Gary now has a crush injury to his left hand and Simon, while safe, has a definite shortage of clean underwear!
 
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