Good Old Hanoi

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I left Melbourne in the morning, and got to Saigon at about 3.30pm. Going through customs in Saigon was really confusing. We left Saigon at about 6.00pm, and got to Hanoi at about 8.00pm.

When I got to Hanoi, there was a guy holding a sign with my name on it, kind of. It said, 'Micgell'. Anyways, this guy was really funny.

On the way to the hotel I noticed that there were many more building and cars compared to when I was there last time.

I stayed in the same hotel I stayed in last time I was there. They told me it would cost me $17 per night, for a room without a balcony. Once I had told them that I had stayed there before, they ended up giving me a room with a balcony for no extra cost.

There was a little girl in the house across from the hotel who always says, 'hello', and waves to me.

It was pretty hot and humid when I got to Hanoi. I just unpacked a few things, and went to bed early.

The next morning I woke up pretty early, as it was so hot, and the street was really noisy. I went down to eat breakfast, and met Nga, who I had talked to on the phone. She was really nice.

After breakfast I went for a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake. It began to rain a little as I was walking around the lake, but the trees provided some nice cover.

I walked to Eco Tours, and booked a one day Halong Bay Tour with them. It was only $18.

Hien called me at the hotel, and arranged to meet me at 5.30pm. She invited me to a wedding. When I was on the phone to Hien, I needed to get a pen, and because when I got back to the hotel and I was so hot, I stripped down to only my underwear. Anyways, when I got up to get the pen, the little girl from the house across from the hotel saw me, and pointed to me and started to call something out. Then her mum came, and quickly closed the window shutters. I dont think she was aloud to wave to me after that....

Not long after that, it began to rain. I wanted to go out and get a new shirt for the wedding, but I had to wait. After it had been raining for about 30 minutes, the street was flooded up to everyones knees. Everyone had to walk on the footpaths, but the water was still past their ankles.

A few people ended up watching the street from their balcony's during the rain. I ended up meeting some people from the UK, who were in Vietnam visiting their familes.

Hien came to pick me up, and I was in a skirt, so I had to sit sideways on the motorbike. As we were driving to the hotel for the wedding, we saw a girl who had been knocked from her motorbike. It was so scary, and didnt really put me in the mood for riding on the back of one.

When we got to the hotel, all of Hien's work friends greeted us. I met her boss as well, who is Dutch. He was the old boss of someone I know back in Australia. The wedding was really nice.

After the wedding, Hien took me to the Water Puppet Theatre. The show there was pretty good. While we were waiting for the show to start, we went looking for some bikini's for when I go to Halong Bay, but we didnt find anything.

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