Good morning, Vietnam!

Monday night 11 June/Tuesday morning 12 June

Having got up at 5 am this morning, and knowing that our overnight train journey will at some time during the night be interrupted by border guards and customs officials doing their usual checks, we take to our bunks at about 9.00 pm. We are woken by loud knocking on our cabin door at about 11.15 pm – and are told that all passengers, with their luggage, must disembark from the train. We hastily gather our stuff together and follow the other passengers into a large hall where we have to pass all our luggage through an electronic security system. Many Chinese people are told to open their bags and cases for inspection by customs officials; the few Western people on the train simply collect their luggage after scanning, and sit in the waiting area, until we are all given the ok to reboard the train.

An hour later it's the turn of the Vietnamese customs officials and border guards; this time we can leave our luggage on the train, but all passengers must get off and hand in their passports. After a period of sitting in the waiting area, we are called up one at a time by name to collect our passports from a border guard, who in turn is being handed the passports by another official, from a glass hatch in the passport office. It all resembles a prize-giving ceremony. As far as we are aware, no-one's luggage is checked by the Vietnamese border officials.

Finally we reboard the train and snatch a few hours sleep until we pull into Hanoi Station, Vietnam. According to Reg's sat nav on his phone, the station is really near our hostel and we can walk to it, so we decline numerous offers of taxis at the station. We then find the station near to our hostel is not the one we're at, so we have to eat humble pie and take a taxi after all.

It's 6.45 am Chinese time, 5.45 am Vietnamese time, Tuesday morning, when we arrive at our hostel. The temperature is already soaring, and it's blissful to enter the air-conditioned reception area of the hostel, to be greeted by friendly faces (3 in fact; 2 fetch us an icc-cold glass of water each, and the same 2 carry my trusty suitcase (yes, it takes both of them to do this) up to our room, while we check in. They can't find our booking (it later transpires that they have our surname as Reginald, not Parker), but they immediately give us a lovely double room with ensuite and that all important air-conditioning. We set the alarm for 9 am, as breakfast finishes at 10, crawl into bed and fall into a delicious sleep.

It may be Good Morning Vietnam, but we don't get our rude awakening to the city of Hanoi until a few hours later, when take our life into our hands (literally) in an attempt, with a member of the hostel staff accompanying us, to cross the road in front of the hostel to our breakfast venue, on the other side of the road.  Hanoi's narrow streets are buzzing with thousands of beeping motor scooters and motorbikes, travelling fast and travelling several scooters abreast.  There are a cars too, but these are vastly outnumbered by motor scooters and motorbikes, which not only fill up the roads, but are parked on the pavements everywhere and anywhere, and will draw up in front of you on the pavement as soon as look at you.

After a few minutes wait, we decide the only way to cross the road is to step off the pavement, and surge forward at a steady pace, hoping the motor scooters will zig zag round us.  Otherwise we won't have any breakfast.