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Saturday 1st Novemeber - Head to Hanoi Vietnam
After our biggest journey yet of 26 hours which was supposed to have been 24 hours, we finally arrived in Hanoi. Wow what a crazy place and we thought Bangkok was busy!!!! Our coach finally dropped us off and it felt like we were in the middle of knowhere!! 9pm dark, and not a clue where we are, out came our guide book "The Old Quarter" was where it was at.
After walking around for about ten minutes we found a guest house, at this time of night unfortunately for us no rooms, Plan B....... Hmmmm ok, so we walked some more with another couple who were on our coach, not knowing which direction to take, the road names were not easy to read or find! At this point we all decided to flag down a taxi, the first taxi refused to take us, so we walked a little more, struggling hard with our backpacks. Another taxi kindly pulled up and offered us a lift, Phew!!!! We all hopped in with a struglle to fit all our bags in, only a tiny car, (fiesta) showed the driver our map and said "The Old Quarter" he looked as though he understood so we drove around getting to see the sights, 30 minutes later we were still driving, we think we have been had, GREAT!!! We showed him the map for the second time and he nodded, so off we go again, a 3 point / 6 point turn in the middle of the busy road, BANG!! Crash; as he reverses another car goes into the back of us, we all look at each other " Get us out of here"!!!! He continues to drive, and finally drops us off an hour later, costing 20,000 Dong each, equiv to 50p. We got out and walked the rest of a our journey in desparate hunt for a place to stay!! Discovering we were in the same place where the taxi driver picked us up from - we have definetley arrived and been scammed!!!! A few streets later, back killing us and just wanting a room, R sees a travel agent, so goes to ask where the nearest guest house is, after checkeing it out on the wall it said "Cozy Hotel) :0)))
We asked how much, they replied between 25 -37 Dollars, straight away RAT replied too expensive!!! After a bit of negoitating we agreed on 20 dollars!! WOW what a room, best so far, double bed, air con, mini bar, tv, bathroom and the most comfiest bed eva, RAT dumped their bags a quick freshen up and straight out to find some food!! Mooched the streets, my god scary stuff!!!, Sunday night is the new staurday, so much was going on, 11pm we found a roof top snack bar for a quick bite to eat, overlooking the busy traffic, horns beepeing continuously, finally headed to bed around 1am!!!!
Monday 3rd November -
Had the best nights sleep ever, bit of a lay in, got up at 1pm!!!!, obviously needed after our 26 hour journey. Had lunch toasted sandwhiches and walked around the shops, taking everything in around us, crossing the road was a death trap, R nearly got knocked over, you have to run to get accross, but they say to us " slowly, slowly" Headed back to our lovely cozy hotel, to shower and back out by 9pm.
Theatre night "The Water Puppets" The story of the farmers in the rice fields, using puppetry to entertain themselves, this was a very quirky and bizarre show, but a must in Hanoi!!! Was all in Vietnamese, so couldn't really follow the story, but was good all the same!! The show lasted about an hour, food time again, back at the same restaurant as we ate in last night, along the way Bizarre enough, we bumped into Emily and Orren , who we had met in Laos, we spent the evening together and headed back by 1am.
Cont'd.......
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