Hanoi was the most polluted city in the world (air pollution) this morning. It features regularly in the top 5 of this dubious "top 100" ranking. Up there with cities like Dakar, Mumbai, Lahore and Calcutta. Chinese behemoths like Beijing (the most polluted city we'd experienced in our lives up till now) and Shanghai don't even usually make the top 20. It's kind of frightening really. When we landed in Hanoi we could barely see land until we landed the smog was so thick. You notice it walking around. You really wouldn't want to exercise in it. It's a complicated one to diagnose but it seems to have deteriorated significantly in the last 5-10 years which coincides with the growth of industry in the area as well as coal fired power stations. The common sight of people burning rubbish or leaves on the pavement doesn't help though. And of course it's not far from the Chinese border. For us, visiting for 2 days it doesn't make a huge difference - it's not particularly pleasant but it's not going to do any long term damage. However for the people living here, particularly the ex-pats used to clean air, it presents a serious problem. The concept of "going out to get some fresh air" goes out the window (which is probably shut because there's too much pollution outside!).

Ours was a short but fun stay in Hanoi. It was nice to see friends Catherine and Ant and lovely for the kids to have pals to play with. The extreme pollution outside was never very inviting so it was a mix of chilling out inside and selective trips outside to see some of the sites. One of the highlights was seeing a huge chunk of a B52 bomber which was shot down in the war in 1972 and now sits proud in the middle of a lake in a residential area of Hanoi. Although busier, the capital was equally easy for tourists without many hawkers etc on the streets. A simple "no thank you" and they leave you alone. The driving in Hanoi did bring us to new levels including driving up the off-ramp of a motorway (twice!) and getting beeped for driving the right way around a roundabout!

Today we depart and head south to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City (more on all that in the next blog!). Down there it's much hotter - high 30s with humidity so it will be by far the hottest place we've visited yet. The boys are looking forward to spending their VND there (we've put off the shopping till the end of the trip!).

In other news, Charlie lost a tooth yesterday and there was some confusion as to whether the tooth fairy would find him at all. Interestingly, she visited during the day here which makes sense as that would be nighttime in France. And she cleverly converted the equivalent amount from € to VND so he could spend it here. Clever fairy!