Well I have made it to Hanoi after an initial 1.5 hour delay in Tauranga. After that everything flowed pretty well. Managed to get a reasonibly good sleep on the leg from Auckland to HongKong. Arrived here mid day 4th July with the big trek not starting until tomorrow night. Will be a good chance for some R & R and a bit of sight seeing.
Went for a walk this afto. Hanoi is really a pretty hectic city with motor bikes everywhere. Everyone is trying to get you to hire them and their motor bike to take us on a one hour bike tour of the city. Too be honest it looks a bit dangerous. Although I haven't seen any accidents yet. I don't want to be a first. Also it does not pay to hesitate when crossing the road. The drivers wave around you as long as they can predict where you are going and at what speed. Have tried to download some photos but the computer I think is a little too slow to manage it. Will try again on the other machine.
The prices of things here are real cheap. Large 1 litre of mineral water is 80cents and a cold beer in a pub $1.50. The only problem is the currency is dong with 12000 dong equal to $(nz)1. You thing you are paying a small fortune.
Thanks Landi for the language lesson. I get a good reaction when I say karm urg for thanks.