Leaving Hanoi soon to go on a 3 day trip to Sapa which is in north west Vietnam, Going on an overnight train, takes about 12 hours. Its a sleeper train with beds - hope its easy to sleep! Plan when there is to do about 10km trekking every day, passing rice fields and stopping off at various villages. I will be glad to leave Hanoi - its too manic here for me, non stop traffic and beeping of hours all day (and night!) long. Here's some pics of  the streets taken in the old quarter of Hanoi (close to my hotel)...

                                                Check out the bikes (beep beep!)

The women selling fruit mean business compared to the the ones in Moore Street....scary!

lunchtime! check out the litte seats!