Hanoi

Wow, today was an adventure and a real culture shock. We woke up this morning and had an amazing buffet breakfast (well the staff did), most of the students went to Burger King. We took the Sky Train to Terminal 3 where we departed for Hanoi. It was a smooth flight that took a little over two and a half hours. Jono White managed to get a 10 second seat in First class to test it out.

Thanks to Active Asia, we made it through security and customs very quickly, however, our bags took a little longer to arrive. 

We then boarded the bus which took us from the airport to our hotel. Wow, was that an experience. Heat, lots of Traffic, scooters that carried whole families.

 We also got to meet our awesome tour guide, Mr Hoang, who is pictured below talking to the students.

We gave the students some time to check into their rooms before we went for a walk and visited the old quarters (French and Vietnamese). We also got to see some amazing historical architecture.

This picture doesn't do it justice, the traffic was mad!!!!

Photo of the crew outside a temple which is a replica of Notre Dame. There is a huge amount of cultural significance, but too much to write.

Sorry, missed the actual building, however, the group was the best part of it.

Ly Thaito, he started the first University in Vietnam. 

After our tour, we left our guides and split up for tea. Some of us went to a restaurant and got pizza, chips and drink for less than $10 NZ.

After tea we headed back to the hotel via the markets. I wish I had taken photos of the markets as they were awesome. Lots of the kids bought Beats headphones, boomboxes and lots of clothes for extremely cheap. I will take photos tomorrow and post them.

I am just sitting in reception and waiting for a few kids to return. I do apologise for some of the poor quality photography, my hands are a bit shaky in this Heat!!!