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Published: July 20th 2015
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Day 1 - The journey out
Well, with a 3am start, and bad nights sleep, I was quite dopey to start with this morning, but I did manage to finish the washing off before I left! Bonus!
The journey over to Manchester didn't go without its hiccups though. First of all, we got as far as Gilberdyke when I realised that I had left my glasses behind! Not good! I can't see much without them. Claire had the patience of a saint, as she offered to return home to get them. I had considered not bothering but me with no glasses for eight weeks would have been very difficult! We then hit about three sets of traffic diversions, which Claire handled with ease .... With the help of our faithful friend.... The sat nav!
We had a leisurely stroll around the shops after devouring a Burger King breakfast. I was amazed how hungry I was already! We boarded the plane.... And off to Singapore we go.....or so we thought. About three hours later we landed in Munich!....WHAT? WHERE? WHY? We simply followed the crowd to the lounge, as directed, Then got the full information that we needed. This would
be a short stop, time for a coffee, a toilet stop, and a fag.... Nice, I wasn't expecting that little luxury break!
The next flight was the long part, but to be honest, we never stopped eating and drinking, so it seemed to pass really quick! I also slept a lot! The next change is when we get to Changing Airport in Singapore.
In Changi, Singapore now, which is such a nice airport. We had just enough time for a toilet and refreshment stop, and a social network catchup before boarding for the final leg of the flight to Hanoi. I just found out that my new baby Granddaughter will be called Thea; that was my favourite choice!
Finally arrived in Hanoi, and easily got the taxi to the hotel. It was a bit of a disappointment, but do-able! We settled out bags in the room, got a cold shower, due to having no other option, then set off to have a look round.
We started off with an iced tea at The Highlands Coffee Bar. It is about three stories up, with a balcony overlooking Hanoi Square. It was just
as I remembered it.
We decided to go to Hoan Kiem Lake next as it is right next to where we where. This lake is considered to be the physical, and symbolic centre of Hanoi. It is said that the lake has lots of turtles in it, and they are not seen in other lakes, especially not in the numbers that are reported to be spotted here. The tortoise is a sacred animal in Vietnam. The lake area is a buzzing social are for young and old alike.
We got about half way round and decided to go to The Lotus Water Puppet Theatre. The water puppets are a Vietnamese folk tradition. It was originally performed by the rice folk. These shows have been performed for over ten centuries.
After the show, in which both of us we're nodding off, we continued our walk around the lake, then in and out of the very narrow, busy streets. One job we needed to do was to arrange out trip to Halong Bay, and some overnight travel. Let me say it wasn't an easy job due to now being so tired. But.... We finally got there, we have
booked a 2 night, 3 day junk cruise on Halong and Cat Ba Island. We also bought an open overnight but ticket. A really good job done. We returned to our hotel at about 9.30pm.....absolutely shattered!
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Sammy
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Glad you made it ok... Sounds like your having a full on first day !! Keep us posted x