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Hanoi is a very unlikely capital city, especially now that we've seen Ho Chi Minh City. By day it looks like 1890s French market town except everyone selling anything is wearing a conical hat; by night it's more like a huge disorganised motorbike race (surrounded by people in conical hats selling stuff).

That said, it has loads of wee idiosyncracies which make it a very cool place. For example, there are no gyms there, yet at 6am every morning thousands of Hanoians come down to the side of the lake in the middle of the city's old quarter to do their morning workout. We saw one old lady with a portable stereo co-ordinating a huge aerobics group.

Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum is here, but it's only open for 3 hours twice a week, due to the thousands of (mostly Vietnamese) visitors who come to pay homage to the great man, and his even greater beard. He apparently gets sent to Russia periodically for a touch up.

And the bar in the photo opposite - Half Man Half Noodle - if you look really carefully, on the right you can see a tiny sign saying "Drink here - or we shoot the puppy". Classic. Oh, and yes the north Vietnamese do eat dog.