Good morning - we're in Vietnam!

After the relatively laid back pace of Sri Lanka, the crazy hustle and bustle of Hanoi was quite a shock to the system when we first arrived! I initially thought that there was some sort of motorbike demonstration going on in the city centre, but no, this was normal traffic in Hanoi! 5 or 6 lanes of motorbikes, bicycles and buses come in every direction, constantantly sounding their horns. The pavements aren't any safer with either cafes or workshops spilling out into the path or rows of motorbikes parked, forcing you to walk in the road - very scary! People carry incredible loads on their bikes too we saw whole families of 4 piled on to a bike and possibly the strangest sight was a live squealing pig tied up and balanced on the back of a scooter!
Crossing the road was another test to overcome. The trick is to just walk slowly and predictably and amazingly all the traffic just seems to flow past with just a few honks on the horn. Once we had overcome the initial fear, we really enjoyed getting to know the city with our genuine photocopied lonely planet. The old quarter was busy and exciting, with people getting on with their daily lives and not really paying us much attention. We easily spent 2 days soaking up the atmosphere as we wandered around.
Our first taste of Vietnamese food was an interesting one - rather than go to the typical tourist spots for a drink, we decided to sit down at a pavement cafe for what we thought would just be a drink. The next thing we knew, we had a plate of strange looking 'meat', some leaves, rice paper and something strange wrapped up in banana leaves. All the locals and boys working there thought it was hilarious that we were there and studied us closely to see what we would do. We couldn't very well just walk away, so with the help of the old lady that worked there, we managed to roll ourselves a few pancakes and forced them down. As we left, we asked the lady what we had just eaten and were told in broken English/French that it was pigs ears!
After a couple of days in Hanoi (with some much nicer food) we took a night train to Sapa, which is in the hills, 10 hours north of Hanoi. The night train was surprisingly comfortable and we arrived to see the sun rise over the paddy field terraced hills - it was stunning.
From Sapa, we trekked to a couple of hill tribe villages, accompanied by the local guide and followed by a procession of young girls dressed in their traditional tribal clothes. They were adorable, but as it turned out, incredibly savvy business women! After practising their English with us the whole way, they produced their wares towards the end of the trek and the typical conversation went as follows:
Girl with bambi eyes: "You buy from me?"
Us "No thank you"
GWBE "Yes thank you"
Us "No, I can't I'm sorry"
GWBE "Sorry for nothing!"

Sapa and the surrounding hills were absolutely beautiful though and a great experience. Most of the people living there work in their small villages on farms or making clothes and will never leave the area. They were incredibly welcoming (albeit more so if we bought a purse) and showed us a completely different side to Vietnam, which we loved.