Here I am in Hanoi and tomorrow morning I will be gone ... :)) yipppeeee ... well til Saturday night and then fly to Laos on Sunday :)) can't wait.
My last night in Hoi An was very relaxing. Had dinner at my favourite restaurant "Red Sail" and tried the last two Hoi An specialities on the menu ... White Rose and Cau Lao Noodles... both very delicious .... then had to stuff my all time favourite in ...fresh rice paper rolls ... yummo! Then had a wine at "White Marble" wine bar and said goodbye to my new friend, Bong. We swapped emails and will hopefully keep in touch.
Yesterday caught the early bus to Hue. I left my backpack (which is now 16.6kg .. have gained over 2kgs) at the City Tour Hotel in Hue which has really nice cheap rooms and it's on the main tourist drag in Hue.. next time!
Spent the arvy in Hue wandering round the Citadel. Amazing place and massive grounds and lots of restoration works going on. At the front in the inside moat there were masses of huge gold fish ... you could buy a bag of fish food for 2,000dong ... throw it in and there's a crazy feeding frenzy. I got more of a kick out of this then the actual Citadel ... was pretty funny but you had to be there :))
And then last night I caught the late plane to Hanoi ... was late late so didn't get in til nearly midnight and was falling asleep on my feet. I had booked the Bamboo Hotel and it looked really nice on the internet... the taxi took me to this really dodgy hotel somewhere else. I kept questioning the man who was waiting for me in the Hotel reception and he kept telling me that it was the Bamboo Hotel ... no it wasn't!! &%$#
The Lonely Planet says it has an "understated elegance".... can you can call paper on the windows instead of curtains and holes in the walls "understated elegance" ??? anyway it was too late and I was too tired ...and the bed was extremely lumpy ... but over night I got really really cranky.
This morning after a cold shower!!! no hot water and the shower head didn't work properly so I was even MORE cranky when I went downstairs for brekky ... I spat the dummy at the man ... cos I was not where I wanted to be and I had no idea where I was ... I showed him on the internet a picture of the hotel I had booked and told him I was in a really bad mood and ranted and raved and then he tells me that the Bamboo Hotel was closed for renovations.... aaaagggghhhh!!!
I said to him why didn't you just tell me this when I booked and why lie to me. Anyway he said he would give me a discount if I stayed another 2 nights ... HUH??? I didn't even want to be there last night ... I just said I am leaving and I'm going to write a letter to the Lonely Planet (cos he is using LP's recommendation to advertise) and Trip Advisor :)) ... so he rang his friend's hotel and he took me and my huge backpack there on his motorbike ...the most terrifying 5 minutes of my life and never again will I get on a motorbike in Hanoi !!! ... so now I am in a nice room in another dodgy hotel and the bathroom floods but there is cable tv... cable tv always makes things so much better :))
So after all this I have decided to splurge on Saturday night and I have booked a really really flash room at the Hotel Elite ... $33 for the night but it will be heaven :)) www.hanoielitehotel.com AND there is a laptop supplied in the room with unlimited internet, 100 free movies on a big screen TV and a mini bar yipppeee ... I know I what I will be doing from 5pm Saturday night til noon on Sunday :))
And today I booked a 3 day tour to Halong Bay ... I shopped around and I found out that this is a no no cos I had a couple of run ins with tour desk people who knew I was shopping around and they didn't like it... hmmmmm. But found a tour that is one night on a junk, one night on Cat Be island in a beach bungalow, first day has kayaking and second day has a hike to vantage point on Cat Be island so I'm praying like crazy it will be a great tour cos I have heard some horror stories of the tours to Halong Bay. But if it's not I will just drink lots of beer to make the pain go away!!!
So this arvy I have wandered around Hanoi... what a rat race... nobody has any regard for anyone else. I had to help this little old Vietnamese lady across the street before cos even she was too scared to cross the road ... will be good to get outta here tomorrow. The lake is beautiful though and walked round the whole thing and then had a beer at the City View Cafe on the 5th floor that overlooked the lake. Went to the Imperial House (an old house in original condition) and the oldest Pagoda in Hanoi... was very peaceful and could've stayed there all afternoon.
So off to pack now for my big adventure on Halong Bay.
Will update on Saturday night with hopefully wonderful stories of my adventures of Halong Bay.
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