What a change! Hoi An was touristy but at the same time sleepy. Hanoi,par contre, is a hive of activity. The noise , the activity, the traffic are unbelievable. Unfortunately the people of Hanoi have exchanged bicycles for motorcycles and the motorcycles reign. They occupy every street and every sidewalk. There is really no room for the humble pedestrian. We are staying in the old quarter which is full of small twisty streets. Each street sells its specialty and ours is meat-on display from the early morning until late at night. No refrigeration. For a break we took a three day trip to Halong Bay(along with about 40,000 other tourists). By good luck however we found a tour company that owns its own island in Halong Bay so we spent the first night in a beautiful bungalow across the bay from Cat Ba town. The second day was not so much fun. In the middle of some fairly blustery weather, right between a couple of fairly large rocks, the motor of our boat started sprouting smoke and flames. The situation might not have been quite so bad but the captain's cell phone batteries were dead. Bev and I were ready to jump ship but we were rescued by a fishing boat. A new boat was called in and we made it back to the sleeping boat to spend the night anchored in Halong Bay. The next day we awoke to glorious sunshine which is very lucky at this time of the year. Tomorow it's off by plane to Vietiane Laos.