At least one part of the journey back to Hanoi from Bac Ha was good, the sleeper train we took was even better than the one we went on when we left Hanoi, still the staff woke everyone up at 4:30 am to be ready for the train arriving at 5ish… After a few days like we had had it was the last thing we needed but still at least we were back in Hanoi, the only thing left to do before we can get back to Thailand was wait for the card at our hotel and seeing as we felt we had seen all of Hanoi that we wanted to see we took a much needed shower and just rested in our room. I checked the package on the internet and it said that it was “out for delivery” as we didn’t expect it until the following day that was great news! I sat outside and waited because I didn’t want to miss it or there be some confusion and it goes back to the depot or something and within an hour a little moped with a man in a TNT shirt pulled up and we were back in the game!!! Thanks again Mandy and Jo!!! No more than 10 minutes later we were strolling around the lake to the air Asia office to book our tickets out of Hanoi to Bangkok and then on to Chiang Mai… We got some for the next day and with that had damn good meal, rented a DVD player and had a nice quiet night in. Our flight was at 2pm so by the time we were up and ready, packed and had breakfast it was time to be off, our taxi arrived and we said goodbye to the staff at the hotel who were so friendly and helpful and also to Vietnam. It has been by far the most surprising country we have been to yet, truly amazing, beautiful and if we had more time we would have gladly stayed even longer! But we had our sights set on Northern Thailand and short of a day jet setting about we were nearly there. Hanoi airport was painless and excluding some overweight baggage (Georgie smashed the weight limit in a glorious fashion) and a bit of a wait we were up up and away. Two hours later we were back in Bangers (Bangkok) baby!!! We have been to that airport so many times it feels like a home from home and it was damn good to be back. We had a descent wait again but nothing too bad and while we were waiting we met some mad Spaniards which always helped, also the smoking rooms help alot! We went straight for a Thai curry as soon as we could having been away from proper spicy grub for three months and Georgie had an ulcer that she forgot about which caused her to hop about for a glass of water for a while, and then away we went again. Georgie isn’t the best flier and all the waiting didn’t help matters also the fact that the flights were so short we went up and then down and never really got a chance to relax so by the time we hit the tarmac in Chiangers (Chiang Mai) she was pretty shot to bits, as tense as a nervous mere-cat. We got a taxi into Chiang Mai and tried a guest house which was full before managing to wake the owner of another up, the room is super basic, shared bathroom the lot but it was late and there were no others open so we had to take it and it seemed only to wind Georgie up more but a plate of amazing doughnuts later and the overall laid back Thai atmosphere in contrast to the feisty Vietnamese from whence we had just came all helped Georgie to unwind and no sooner had we laid down we were both soundo…

14/09/08 Again with the early wake up call at 7am in the form of our tour guide rapping on the door, and despite an earlier night it wasn’t any easier dragging ourselves up to the dining room for polite conversation over breakfast, but as soon as we got a good coffee in us and the sea air worked its magic we were back in the game. The breakfast was nothing short of spectacular of course and once that was out of the way we could get on with enjoying the bay, we took our fresh cups of coffee and sat right on the front of the boat and dangled our legs over watching it all drift by and spotting jellyfish while we gently made our way slowly back to the port. We didn’t arrive back in port until 11am and the ride back was nothing short of spectacular, it just doesn’t get old… Once the anchor was down we all checked out of our cabins and sat down for lunch… Our last meal on the boat was as amazing as the first, seriously its worth going on the cruise just for the food! After lunch we got on the little landing boat, went back to dry land and got on our bus back to Hanoi. Once again we were back in the old quarter of Hanoi and the first thing we did was check to see if our card had been found in the ATM, alas it hadn’t so we spent the next few hours sorting that all out and everything that comes with it including a phone call to the worlds best parents for a little help… Thank you!!! From then until now all we have been doing is hanging about the old quarter trying to conserve the little emergency cash we have by doing not a lot, until a few hours ago when we got our night train tickets all booked up for tonight Sapa bound… THANKS AGAIN JO AND MANDY XXX

The old quarter and all its hustle and bustle has kept us pretty busy for the last 3 days, Friday night we were out wandering as usual and stumbled across a night market, not just any night market either… It was made up of mainly garish masks, brightly coloured lanterns and children’s toys, loud flashing children’s toys. I can’t believe we hadn’t spotted it before because it was just around the corner from where we are staying. Its squeezed down the middle of the already narrow streets running through the old quarter and it spills from the shops on either side as well leaving just enough room to squeeze along and dodge the mopeds. As we ventured further in it got more and more crowded and loads more crazy. It made the day time old quarter look reserved and spacious, it was certainly an experience, an assault on the senses, well more like having your senses raped! After a few hours being completely lost in the flashing lights and screaming children, oh and the beeping mopeds of course, we were shot to bits… Literally, also Georgie wasn’t quite back to normal and still felt a little under the weather so we headed back to our room and off to the land of nod.
Every day we start with good intentions of shopping for things we actually want and need, trying to squeeze in maybe a little culture and some top grub… And every day we fail, we end up wandering about looking at tat and other stuff we really don’t need, hypnotised by the charm and hustle of the old quarter. So yesterday we tried to get up early especially to have a day of culture and the like and actually managed it… Well we didn’t get up early but hey… We started the day at the nearby Hoan Kiem lake where there are said to be magical lucky tortoises lurking about and there is a small island temple dedicated to a pickled tortoise they pulled out years ago… It killed a few hours but we didn’t get lucky and spot a live one…
After the lake we went to the traditional water puppet theatre to pick up tickets for an evening show, then carried on wandering along the side of the lake and all the way to the French quarter, again we were in and out of most of the shops along the way looking at tat we really don’t need but it was nice anyway and the French quarter was a welcome change with its bigger open spaces and more metropolitan feel while still being home to lots of really large period buildings all slightly decayed and really quite pretty.
At 6:30 we went along to the water puppet theatre for our evening show, it turned out to be really good, we got some traditional Vietnamese music thrown in and although all the dialogue was in Vietnamese it was easy to follow because the puppets were so articulate and its all done on long submerged sticks under the water from behind the backdrop.
The show only lasted about an hour or so and after that we ended up having a beer or three at the terrace bar nearby watching the utter madness of the mopeds again…
This morning though we did actually get up nice and early and headed off to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum complex for another shot of culture. Its a little further away from the old quarter than we have ventured so far but none the less it was pretty interesting, we started off at his mausoleum itself which unfortunately was closed so we could only admire it from the outside and not actually catch a glimpse of the pickled fella but it was still quite a cool place. Then we looked around his houses and palace where he lived and worked then finally to the museum, which was a really good museum, a little surreal but there’s nothing wrong with that…
We are still hanging around for our visa extensions to come back and will be until Tuesday probably before we can start making tracks for Halong Bay so until then more of the same I think…

The only way I can describe Hanoi is manic, you are always taking up precious space on the pavement or the road and there is always dozens of mopeds or hawkers that want to use the same piece of tarmac. On our second day in the city that never stops beeping we explored the old quarter even more, Georgie started to feel a bit rough and full of flu so we didn’t go too far, but you don’t need to! In fact its a fucking mission to go anywhere! The old quarter is alot like the Khao San rd in Bangkok only x2… twice the traffic, twice the size, twice the shops, it even feels twice as far from home and there’s generally twice as much going on. We strolled around barely being able to take it all in for several hours, then spotted a lake not too far away so we made a bee line for that hoping for a bit of space for a while.
Its a pretty big lake slapped right in the middle of the city, I forget the name but it apparently has lucky turtles in it or something and if you happen to see one then you get good luck… We saw none. But we did spot loads of interesting shops and even a little mall that we wasted a while wandering around… Of course Georgie bought more clothes, I swear it will be like buckaroo if she keeps cramming stuff in her back pack…
The lake itself was really nice to just walk around, take in the general craziness of Hanoi but from a nice quiet distance. We have time to kill in Hanoi because we ran short on our visas and really didn’t want to leave Vietnam yet so we are getting a month extension which should allow us to see the north but it will take a few days so until then we have nothing but time, there are a few sights around Hanoi we want to see but the primary objective is to sort Georgie out and get her all better first.
After our little stroll around the lake we ducked back into the madness of the old quarter for some lunch at a rooftop cafe that looked out over a roundabout, that was interesting! It was actually hypnotic to watch, you feel almost certain that in the next few seconds you will see an accident and every moped will fall like domino’s.. Luckily it didn’t happen, and we tore ourselves away to get lost in the mess of streets around our old quarter hotel yet again.
We ended up completely lost in some market/alley but it didn’t matter because where ever we were we felt a little lost and that’s half the charm of the place, that it feels like a living thing, everyone and everything is moving and changing and every time you look round its a completely different scene than a few moments ago, mixed with the smells and sounds it really is the deep end. It makes Bangkok look like a sleepy little town!
By yesterday evening Georgie was feeling pretty rough so we went back to our hotel and I found a place that rents out DVD players so she could veg out in front of the box and concentrate on getting better. We headed out for dinner at a wicked awesome vegetarian place which perked her up no end but that’s about it bless her it had been a very long day…