Day 12 - Halong Bay to Hanoi

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I was up early this morning as I woke at 5:17am and realised that the sun would be rising shortly so I got up.

And it was so worth it. The sunrise was amazing, and there was no noise apart from the birds and beetles. And there was even some blue sky which was something we hadn't seen yet on the bay.

Breakfast wasn't until 7:30am so myself, Jess, John and Gene just sat and enjoyed the serenity until the others got up in time for breakfast.

Breakfast consisted on toast, eggs and fruit and tea and coffee.

After breakfast I had a quick shower, packed up my stuff and sat on the deck until we pulled into the wharf at about 9:30am. Then it was the 4hr drive back to Hanoi.We stopped off just for a quick toilet break about 2hrs into the drive before hitting the road again.

We got to Hanoi about 1:00pm, checked into our rooms (the same ones as before) and 6 of us met in the lobby to venture down the street to once again have Bun Cha for lunch, at the same place as two days earlier. Still just as tasty.

We then headed back to the hotel, grabbed our swimmers and walked in the direction of the West Lake. We had seen in the lonely planet guide a hotel that you could go to and pay a few dollars to use the pool. On the way we stopped at the Sofitel to see how much it would be to use their pool; they sent us up to level 4 where the gym and pool are and they wanted $35 each so we turned back to go down the lift and though we'd instead go up to level 18 to see what they view was like. When you got up to a certain level in the lift the glass was clear so you could see out. The view from up there was amazing. When we stepped out of the lift we saw a sign saying presidential suite.. Fancy! We figured they were watching us on the cameras by this point so just got back in the lift and headed out of the hotel.

We walked quite a bit further and tried another place but they wanted $30 each so we continued on to the place where we were originally headed. When we got there it was only $4 to use theirs but none of us had towels so we had to lay on the plastic lounges without them, and by this point it was after 3:30pm and the sun had gone behind the clouds so we couldn't even tan up. We ended up jumping in a cab at about 5:00pm to come back to the hotel to get ready for our last dinner of the tour.

We met in the lobby at 7:00pm and caught cabs to Don's Restaurant. It is along the West Lake and is considered high end for here but it's probably about what you'd pay at a fairly cheap main at home. The food was fantastic, the cocktails super strong and the setting was stunning. We ate, chatted, discussed the highs and lows of the trip and did a secret santa type thing where we'd all bought something on the trip and wrapped it and put it in a bag and did a lucky dip. I got a bag of coffee beans which was good because I was going to go in search of some to take home anyway; just have to get them through customs now.

After dinner a few of us went in search of an Aussie pub called The Spotted Cow. We got dropped off at the address only to find that it had closed down just two months earlier. So we walked for a bit trying to find somewhere to go but nothing, it seems they don't much do any normal pubs or clubs here, just karaoke.

So we jumped in cabs and headed back to the hotel. Most of the group still has another night tomorrow night anyway so no big deal.

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