Hanoi again.

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Arrived back in Hanoi safe and sound, train trip fine again four berth sleeper, Kids slept well, Jane and I had a little trouble sleeping. Arrived at Hanoi at approx 6:ooam, with a thousand touts trying to offer us taxi or cyclo rides back to our Hotel. We booked into Camella Hotel 2 which is located right in the heart of the Old Qtr, Nothing special but clean and hot water.

Walked this morning through old Qtr to Uncle Ho's resting place when we got there he must have been having some restoration works done closed !. This didnt worry sam so much as he kept calling him C/Sanders KFC fame (I can see the resemblance). We did get to see the presedential Palace and the living quarters of Ho Chi Minh.

All our legs are still sore from our trek at Sapa, so we spent a few hours back at the Hotel to freshen up before hitting the streets again. We walked to an area the Xuan market which when we arrived was just setting up, we stayed around and it was well worth the wait, Emma and sam had a ball. Emma is buying up big the fake louis Voutoin ? (spelling ?) bag and Sam sunglasses, it wasn't much of the culture of Vietnam (we did attempt to pay our respects to uncle Ho, how were we to know it was closed).

It is hard to describe the hectic pace of the place it seems to never stop, I know I have spoken of the traffic, but it is truly incredible, motorbikes cars and trucks all hitting the same intersection at 30kmh and yet no one seems to hit anyone else.

We believe that Noosaville school may have been reading some of our travels, just to let them know that the Noosaville State School flag was flying high at a small remote school outside the village of SAPA. we had taken some coloured pencils and writing materials with us and Sam presented them to the class teacher along with a small koala, the kids and teacher thought this was fantastic, I think Sam got a good kick out of it as well.

Unsure if I mentioned to much on our home stay. The homestays in the villages outside of Sapa has sure been a highlight. Sam has been a hit with all the children playing ball games and I think every young man in the village must have heard of this giant girl from Australia, they all come to look at Emma and all comment on how tall she is and the fact she is only 14. We can recommend anyone heading to Sapa to undertake a homestay.

We travel on to Halong Bay tomorrow which from all reports should be as good as Sapa in it's own way. Still attempting to embed some photos. Hope all is well with everyone. Regards the TICKS.

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Comments

[Gemmells]

Hanoi again
We are really enjoying catching up every day. Keep up the good walking!! By the end of your travels, the Tickner Family will be a household name in every Vietnamese family - tall, spell-binding daughter, athletic white-haired son with egg-shaped ball, mother extraordinaire and father who is a two pot screamer on rice wine! A legend in the making. We had a rum for you all on ANZAC day. Take care, the Gems.