Day 5 We've got a train to catch

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We woke up to find the boat had moved round the corner nearer to the lagoon We had breakfast and were transfered into small bamboo rowing boats and were taken back to the lagoon to feed the monkeys. We saved a few bananas from breakfast and Tu had brought along some left over toast. There were quite a lot all clambering to get to the food people were throwing up to them, apparently monkeys like toast in a morning or so it would seem anyway.

We returned to the boat and sailed off towards the harbour where we would disembark for our journey back to Hanoi. We sat on the top deck for a bit of a sun bathe and a snooze as the we floated by the magnificent scenery. Once nearer the harbour we had lunch which was more of the same seafood but to our surprise had chips with it! It was a welcome change and they didn't last long.

The journey back to Hanoi didn't seem as long as on the way somehow and we couldn't remember there being as many potholes, but once back in Hanoi the chaos of traffic resumed and the constant horn beeping made you appreciate the calmness of Halong Bay even more. We were dropped off for a cyclo tour of the old city that we had missed out on the other day as it was a weekend a was very busy with tourists, it was not far from our where our hotel was on the first night. Kathryn went first and the rest of us followed, It's fair to be said that our cyclo men will not be entering the London 2012 Olyimpics as they were the slowest in world history and occasionally getting off and pushing but i'm not suprised because at that speed it was hard to build up any momentum and the slightest incline felt like we were going to stop. The Cylo ride did however get you up close and personal with the traffic, unbelievable is the only way to discribe it, there is only rule when it comes to riding or driving around and that is CHARGE! This was a great experiance though and strangly calming in a way as you could people watch at great length. Each of the 38 streets of the old quarter sells a different thing, so as you went down the hardware street, there were links for chains, metal etc. One sells medicines, another paper products for weddings and another flowers. We even saw where they sell coffins!

Cyclo tour done there was just time to grab a bite to eat before boarding our overnight train to Hue. The train had small cabins inside, enough for four people in single bunk beds and all things considered was pretty good and reasonably clean. We did kill a couple of cockroaches that had made their way into the cabin, which balanced out the two bites Kathryn and mum had collected whilst sat outside the station waiting for the train. Our journey was to be around 15hours, so after one or two night caps from the duty free we picked up in Manchester we settled in for the night.

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