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Published: March 8th 2011
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When the alarm went off we were still so tired , but I guess staying up till midnight watching a film didn't help. Still no reply from the hotel - would anyone be there to pick us up? The taxi ride to the airport was interesting, only because I couldn't stop looking at the driver - when your driver is struggling to keep his eyes open it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence!
We all had seats miles away from each other on the plane. It didn't matter too much as we all dozed on the way. As we walked into arrivals we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw a sign with Andy’s name on it.
The taxi ride to the airport was an eye opener. We would have preferred the taxi driver who couldn't keep his eyes open. We swerved in and out of traffic with horns beeping continually and mopeds everywhere. More often than not and somewhat worryingly they were using either side of the road! The motorway was surrounded by rice fields with the occasional buffalo wandering around aimlessly. Apart from the motorway this was how I pictured Vietnam.
We made a good
choice with the hotel. It was all brand new and some of it was still being fixed or put together. We wanted to explore but all we were good for when we arrived was a nap!
Feeling refreshed we took a walk to the bus station to book tickets for Halong bay the following day. With so many mopeds about crossing the road was a challenge. We discovered the best way was very slowly so they could ride around you. We found the sales people to be far more pushy, some even follow you down the road for ages. Pete found this out as he was followed by a woman trying to sell him a baby t-shirt and Andy when someone appeared from nowhere and put a Vietnamese hat and basket carrier on him requesting money for a picture.
We found somewhere for dinner where I was feeling adventurous so chose the squid. I was quite surprised to find that it looked different from the squid we get at home - very squid like. It was really tasty though.
Later while searching for a place to get a drink we found the Gambrinus bar. We had read that
it brewed its own beer so were hoping for a good pint and happy atmosphere. As we climbed the stairs and were shown to our table we started to think we had made a mistake. It was a big place set over a few levels. The area that we were sat in was cavernous which only made the noise from the entertainment echo. The entertainment consisted of a tag team of singers, one male and one female. Both of which were whaling songs which can only be described as music to slit your wrists to. They were accompanied by a depressed looking saxophone player and a keyboard player who didn't actually play but picked a different demo to play along side each song.
At one point a new man appeared on stage. He looked all upbeat and rather snazzy in his pink shirt. We thought maybe the tempo might pick up. It did for a short while but this was only while he sang happy birthday to a man at a table next to us while he was presented with an oversized bunch of flowers and the whole restaurant clapped along. As if anything could make it worse
the many televisions scattered around the bar were all playing the same episode of Mr bean on a continuous loop. We drank our drinks pretty quickly and left. Only making a brief stop in the ladies on the way out. The choice of decoration in the ladies was shall we just say strange!
Pete was feeling under the weather so went off to bed early. Andy and I stopped at a small bar round the corner from our hotel for a night cap. Mojitos were 30.000dong (85p) and Bia hoi which is the local beer was just 5000dong (14p). Yes that's right 14pence for a pint of really good beer. We struggled to spend £3!
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