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After the worst sleeper bus journey as of yet, we were dumped on a chilly anddeserted Hanoi roadside a little earlier than scheduled. As it was only half five in the morning, we were a little worried about securing accommodation for that night, so we headed off in a taxi with the Canadians in search of the Old Quarter, where we were reliably informed, lots of accommodation lay. After the driver going round in circles and pulling up outside his friend's hostel and trying to convince us that this was the one we were looking for, we finally found the one we wanted, which much to our dismay was all locked up with no sign of life. After literally banging on the shutters for a while, the shutters finally opened to two bleary eyed staff members who had set up beds on the floor of the reception! After being told that they had beds available for us in a couple of hours, we decided to set up camp in reception out of the cold and wait it out. A long and cold 4 hours later, we decided against waiting for our room and head off for a bit of a look round.
After booking a tour to Halong Bay for the next few days and a brief wander around the city to get our bearings, we went back to our hostel to climb the four very steep flights of stairs to our room, which was completely surrounded by glass and resembled a greenhouse with 4 single beds sqeezed together and not much room for anything else!
Later that evening we headed out to experience a bit of the New Year celebrations which were in full swing. There were many stages located around the lake in the centre of the city, complete with athletes, jugglers and acrobats and the place was teaming with people all in very high spirits. The local children especially seemed to take quite an interest in our cameras and were very keen to practise their English, which was very sweet!!
A delicious and ridiculously cheap meal at an Italian restaurant in the Old Quarter we headed back to 'the Greenhouse'for a good nights sleep before our excursion to Halong Bay bright and early the next morning.
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