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Hello!
I know, I know, you dont hear from me for over a week then suddenly you get two blog entries in the space of a couple of days, what can I say, I like to keep you all on your toes with my wild and unpredicatable blogging habits - get used to it!
We are in a hotel with internet in our rooms so I'm making the most of it! Plus my last entry was so big I thought I'd better do smaller and more frequent blogs or you'd all go mad with boredom!
After we left you yesterday we nipped to the post office and while inside it started raining really heavily so we did what any sensible person with a couple of hours to kill and rainy weather would do, we went and had some beers. We had a delightful little chat and by the time we were on our second bottle the sun had come back out (the sun will come out, after 2 bottles, so you gotta hang on til two bottles, come what may...) 1pm we skipped merrily back to the hotel to collect our bags ready for the airport. The nasty evil man at the airport took my lighters off me (I've always carried lighters in my hand luggage!?) and whats worse is that I forgot about another I had which he didnt discover on the scan of my bag so I should kept my gob shut. I mourned for my smiley yellow clipper lighter from the Algarve for about 5 mins and then I got over it.
Flight was delayed by about 2 hours and considering our tour guide had already INSISTED we went to the airport 3 hours beforehand to check in (obviously dying to get rid of us!) we were not in the best of spirits! We went through check in expecting to find lots of shops and places to eat on the other side (like NORMAL places) but there was one place - 'Kiss n' Bake' which was false advertising as the woman behind the counter looked scared when I asked for my kiss at the til. We had to buy something from there as we were due to take our Malaria tablets and needed to have them with food so we opted for a hot dog. To be fair there was only about one other thing on the menu. The hotdog was minging but we shut our eyes and ate them anyway!
After eventually getting on the flight and discovering we were sitting next to an extremely cute Vietnamese dude (and he really was a dude!) we had a stop off somewhere in China which thankfully was quick and they just herded us onto next plane and off we went. Cute dude was laughing his backside off while watching 40 year old Virgin on his laptop and I couldnt help but stare and swoon, we got chatting to him in the end - lovely lad!
When we arrived we had to pick up our Visas which took sooo long that by the time we got out the the baggage carousel it had stopped, everyone was gone and our bags were sitting together looking very abandoned indeed. Thankfully we'd pre arranged a taxi transfer to our hotel as we were flying in late (even later thanks to the flight delay) so we jumped in taxi and 30 mins later were where we needed to be. We stared going through little dark abandoned streets that looked like a shanty town and one point the taxi driver stopped and used his mobile - Gemma looked a bit panicky so I thought I'd calm her down by telling her he was prob ringing his friends to come and rob/murder us in the dark streets where no one would find us etc etc which I dont think helped. Eventually we got to our hotel where we were informed no rooms were available but they'd take us to their sister hotel round the corner (we booked but were so tired we didnt care anymore as long as we got a room soon - this was about 1.30am!) So the hotel guy told Gemma to jump on the back of his moped and he'd drive her over to the other hotel then come back for me! We were really tired, we were in a new and very strange place, its was 1.30am, it was pitch dark oh and it was also hammering down with rain but the temp was in the 80's. we were standing there with our heavy back packs, I looked at Gemma as if to say 'Please dont leave me here alone' she looked at me as if to say 'Please dont let him take me away!' and then we told him we'd walk! And we did! Down many scary streets with people lurking in shadows - argh!
When we eventually got to the hotel our room was lovely and we were happy to see we had a computer with free internet access included. I wrote a couple of emails then went to bed, it was about 2.30am....
...and woken at 7 by hammering - looks like our hotel is next to a building site - deep joy! I had a bath and we went down for breakfast which was great, then we were about to head out exploring when the receptionist said we could stay in this hotel rather than shift all our stuff back to the original one today so we rang them to tell them and they said no (they are sister hotels so not sure why they hadnt already discussed this amongst themselves!?) so we had to dash upstairs, grab bags and walk over to the original hotel which is where we are now. After our lovely room I'm disappointed that we now find ourselves in what is basically a windowless, didngy bedsit type thing on the ground floor of the hotel, just past reception and literally right next to the tables where people have their breakfast - there is currently a Vietnames baby bawling just outside the door as the hotel owners have their friends over. Its the only room on the Grd floor but we figured we'll just put up with it as Rebecca arrives tomorrow and we will transfer to a triple bedroom in the same hotel and hopefully will be better than this room! And anyway, we are probably going to stay in rooms a lot worse than this at some point on our travels!
We eventually managed to venture out - the heat is mad! I don't think I've ever been somewhere with heat like this! We are in the Old Quarter of Hanoi which is where all the travellers stay as its central to everything and right by the river so we went for a walk by the river and got some lunch, then we went to get ice cream at Fanny's (we'd hunted it down after seeing it in the Lonely Planet!) Then we went back to sit by the river and a 17 yr old Vietnamese lad asked if he could sit down and practise his english on us - he was so lovely and so so intelligent, nothing like some of the 17 yr old hoodies we have back home! We even looked over an essay for him and explained what some of the words were. During all this there was some dodgy man with a big camera who started taking pictures of us - I let the first couple go then I stared hard at him hoping he'd piss off but he just said 'Hi' then came over to show me the photo he'd taken - Hello! I can see you are taking photos of us on the sly and I'm making it clear I dont like it so now you're showing them to me like its perfectly normal to sit there taking photographs of strangers!? i thought he'd go then but he must have taken about 10 more from diff angles before b*****ing off. To calm Gemma (again) I told her he was taking them to put on the website later so rich business men could bid on us in order to get us in some dungeon to torture us to death....I dont think it helped....and I think I've seen too many horror films.
We then walked back to the hotel and had a little nap and here I am! Tonight we venture out to some of the pubs in our Lonely Planet on the hunt for back packers, locals and ex pats alike...hopefully will be good.
Am not missing China, that had some bizarre stuff going on there. I'm pretty sure there are squat toilets here although we havent come across any yet, however the place doesnt smell as bad as Beijing! Also all toilets have soap and toilet paper which is a luxury believe me! Also its nice not seeing the kids squatting in the street - in China the toddlers have got slits in the crotch of their trousers/shorts/underwear so that whenever they get the urge to 'go' they just squat down wherever they are and go! Thats all kids, not just the locals - it was a bit of a shock the first day we arrived I tell you! I am wondering what the rest of our tour group from China are up to now, plus Facebook appears to also be banned here in Vietnam which means we are still not picking up messages on there but its ok, I can't say I'm missing it too much.
I also received a HUGE mozzie bite a few hours after arriving here - they seem to be just as much around during the day as they do at night and my leg is itching like a beyatch now- why do the mozzies love me so much!
Tomorrow Rebecca arrives and I think the plan is that Monday we head to Halong Bay which I cannot wait for as I need some time on a beach!!!!!!!!!!!! The weathers been awesome today too (no rain) so lets hope it keeps up for the beach on Monday!
Once again hope all is well there and will write again in a few days- still havent found somewhere to upload photos but may pop into a camera shop tomorrow and pick something up to help so should have some photos for you soonish!
Much love x
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