Vietnam... Just waiting for cars now.

We arrived in Hanoi just after lunch, and had a nice surprise. Our visa's for Vietnam were issued from Vietnam prior to the trip, and since the delays were due to expire on Monday 14th... which should have been fine until leg 3 possibly slipped 2 days (they were due to meet us on Saturday i.e. tomorrow). A bit of a panic ensued as to get an extension would have required a trip to the embassy before midday today... which we didn't have, so we were going to risk it. However, the officials at the airport stamped the passports, and gave us a range of dates for departure from 25th July onwards... I have no idea how that works, but I'm hardly going to argue!

After an 'interesting' ride over to the hotel in a minibus, we met up with Ian and Rachel (fellow leg 4'ers) who had flown in from China last weekend, and went for a drink (2 rounds for 9 people = 10ukp ish), and then meandered around the town before a Vietnamese dinner (9 people, 10ukp).
Hanoi is hotter and more humid than Singapore, and air con is much fewer and further between... I am sweating like anything... I think i'll just have to get used to that as part and parcel.... Rachel has booked us a really nice place - we aren't in the same hotel as they are, but just across the road (the lady owns 5 hotels on the same road), and we are the first guests. Alex was rather smug when Mrs Moon (the hotel owner) asked for someone handsome to be the first in the door, and singled him out, but I guess it's just cos he's the tallest :P
The downside is we are about 6 floors up, and the lift (and a lot of other stuff) is not finished yet- we have 3 rooms on the one floor, and it's the only bit finished in the whole place (10 floors?). There doesn't appear to be a roof when you look up the stairwell.... However, the air con is ace, the room is lovely, and we have a balcony - and it's a grand total of about $32 per night, or roughly 8ukp each... including breakie.

The whole of leg 4 may well be decamping north to a town near the Chinese/Vietnam border tomorrow so that we can help leg 3 across the border (they are going to need it), and avoid having to drive all the way back to Hanoi before getting to the Lao border - and onwards all the way to Singapore! We are all just itching to get our hands on the cars and get underway now. Hopefully leg 3 will arrive in to Vietnam on Sunday night or Monday morning.