En route to Sapa: Good Morning Hanoi!

I kid you not, these pigs were still alive
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We left KL on the 9AM Malaysia Airlines flight to Hanoi ($80AUD one way), and man oh man was it a culture shock when we stepped out of Noi Bai airport.  We negotiated a taxi ($15 US) to the Hanoi train station and got our first glimpse of Vietnamese traffic: 6 lanes of traffic on a 3-lane highway, 3-people and a kitchen sink on a single motorbike, and horns galore to let everyone know that you're still there...love it! We booked our overnight soft-sleeper train ticket to Sapa at the Hanoi train station (D300,000 one way) which I'd recommend doing instead of through hotels and tour operators as they will without fail put a hefty commission on top.  After tickets were booked we stashed our packs at the train station lockers and headed out for our first Vietnamese meal.

2 ways on a 1 way
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Now crossing the road in Vietnam is likened to a game of Frogger: you bravely step out onto the road as motorbikes, trucks and bicycles whiz by in front and behind you. You take one step at a time, sometimes forward, sometimes backward, with no sudden movements until you reach the other side.  The first few times we had to standby for a wingman that we could follow across, but by the fourth time we were practically pros.

A quick and delicious bite at a street cafe up the street from the station (2 beers + 2 mains = D80,000) and a few more beers at a nearby bar (4 x 440mL Bia Hanoi = D60,000) made for a nice start to the trip north.  We lingered around the train station for our 9.30PM train...which left just shortly after 11 :-)