I managed to chivvy both Jo and Lucas out of bed early to experience the real Crossy Road on offer just outside our hotel. 
The trick we found was, like the rest of the traffic, ignore the mopeds. Just walk slowly in to the road in front of them. The moped riders avoid you. It is scary but it works ! Well, on the whole it works. Hanoi apparently has one road death an hour. I'm guessing many are moped riders and pedestrians.
To get to the road we passed through the foyer of the hotel. Freshly fumigated it seemed. We were all coughing, wheezing and sneezing before we even got outside.
The old market is an eye opener. Weird fruit and veg I didn't recognise. Smells of herbs, spices and coffee. Women carrying two baskets tied to sticks over their shoulders. Butchers with no fridges, just piles of freshly chopped meat lying there in the raging heat that was building.
Then Lucas spotted the terrapins. Tanks of live fish, crabs trussed up in leaves and cages of terrapins awaiting their date. This was blatantly not a pet shop. This was a Vietnamese market in its raw state. Lucas was all for buying all of the terrapins so we could release them somewhere. He had his £20. It was a plan of sorts, alas we had a minibus booked in 40 minutes. Jo suggested he could donate some money to a charity that dealt with turtle rescue and if he did so, she would double it. He was all up for donating the full £20. Plus his pocket money. Jo winced as her generosity bit her on the bottom.
So, off to Hanoi Airport for our flight to our next country. Well, it was in fact 2 flights. We flew via Luand Prabang once more. Looked out for bathing elephants in the Mekong but saw none.
It was raining in Cambodia as we put down again. Our first rain of the trip. Not the cold, unpleasant stuff at home, it was still 30 odd degrees. Still glad I told them not to bring coats.
Our minibus driver was a jovial chap who said his name was Mr Happy. I was expecting him to be much shorter, with a beard and 6 equally short friends but not out here it seems. He was keen to spend a day taking us around the temples tomorrow and grabbed my thigh in a disconcerting manner a few times. We got to our hotel without too much serious molestation.
Boy, Siem Reap has changed since last time Jo and l were here. We thought it would but the pace has been incredible. We were in downtown Siem last time in a cute little guest house. This time our hotel was in a bustling street 2 miles from the centre. The place is expanding like an epidemic.
I first came to Siem Reap with my friend Mike in 1996. The borders had only opened a few years before after the Pol Pot regime had slaughtered over a million of the population. Then Cambodia was a poverty stricken wreck of a country with only 7000 tourists a year and hotel rooms available for a dollar. Less than 20 years on there are 5 star hotels, a tourist district in town, posh restaurants and bars and much foreign investment.
We ended up in the tourist district that night. Just off 'Pub Street' which didn't exist last time we were here. A band of land mine victims struck up with their local music opposite and continued their whiny, tinkly racket all evening, in competition with the local bars throwing out a more westernised and modern alternative.
Cambodian BBQ provides the tourist with a traditional style tabletop cooking experience with soup, noodles and raw meat to cook. Such traditional Khmer fare as swordfish, snake and, erm, kangaroo. It was an experience. 
Not sure I'd go for snake again though. Not that I have any issues with eating snakes, it's just like chewing gristle.
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