Hanoi, Vietnam

At this moment in time, we are facing a very long bus journey tonight. Hopefully I will be able to sleep but I don't know if I can or not with the Vietnamese music playing. Fingers cross it will go in quick. To think I used to moan being on a coach back home for four hours. Now four hours is a piece of cake. On a positive, these sleeper buses are great for me as I have loads of room, well, only at the back of the bus. I'm screwed if I have to sit anywhere else. The joys of being a traveller! Here's to a nice, long journey, wish us look! Fourteen and a half hours and a whole lot of bumps later, we finally arrived in the capital. As usual, we had people coming up to us wanting us to stay at there hotel. We went back with one of them to take a look at their hotel, 'Violet Hotel.' Its seems nice, the rooms are comfortable and the staff seem nice, or so they seem! One of the nicest things about Hanoi is the lake area. There is a nice temple on an island in the middle of the lake, which is really nice. Don't worry, you don't have to swim to it, there is a lovely red bridge to bring you across. If you really want to swim, do it, you crazy fool! It's nice to just walk around the lake as there are nice gardens and monuments to see. The city is nice. It's a lot older than the modern Saigon, with a bit more character. We found a really nice restaurant called 'Gecko.' The food is really nice and the staff are so friendly, which is hard to find in Hanoi! While we were there, all three of us wrote inspirational messages entitled 'Life Is For The Taking.' Jason's life changing message was 'Beer.' I guess there is no hope for us drunken Irish! At first our hotel seemed nice, but little did we realise we would have 'Antz In Our Pantz' literally! Poor Jason was covered in bites from them. They always pick on poor old Jason, why not Kathrin, who wants to embrace all her 'Brothers and Sisters.' She's Swiss, there's no cure for her! That's So Sad!' The staff were really annoying. Everytime we bumped into one of them they were constantly asking us to book a tour, bus and wanting to know if were going to stay another night. In the end we only stayed one night. They always tried to short change us! More than one night would be too much. On the morning we were due to check out, we got a call at 9.30am wanting to know if we will stay longer. How annoying, we could have been asleep. That wasn't the only call we got. If I recommend you stay there, then I guess I must not like you that much! Apart from that, it is a nice city to visit for a weekend, but don't spend too much time there as the countryside is where you want to be! On a different note, I've decided to join Kathrin and Jason in ' The Fight Against Meat!' Well for a few weeks anyway, don't think I could be a full time vegetarian, maybe just a part time one! After enjoying a few nights in Sapa, it was time to return to the capital. Lucky for us the bus now takes a shorter route via the new highway. The only problem is that it's not yet finished and I'm not sure if work has even begun on it. Anything goes in Asia! As you can imagine, it was very bumpy and a little bit scary. However we did arrive into Hanoi at 2am rather than at 8am and this time we thought we would give Violet Hotel a miss and try 'Hanoi Backpacker Original' It was nice and the staff were friendly, well most of them. We each stayed in a dorm. The first night we arrived, Kathrin had to sleep in a separate one, but the next day, we were all reunited again. The hostel we were staying in runs walking tours every morning, so all three of us decided to check it out. It was free, so as you can imagine it was not that a great. And to make things worse, I could hardly walk as my foot was very sore. Poor me! Things were made a lot better later on when we all headed to the cinema to see Disney's 'Maleficent.' It was really good. I guess, we're all big kids at heart! The following day we spent exploring through the city. Nothing too strenuous! All in all, the capital city is nice but that's all. I don't think I would come all the way out here just to visit it again!

By Andrew

#capital #city #lake #disney