Day 13 - Hanoi

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Woke at 7:00am but went back to sleep until my alarm went off at 9:00am, got ready and headed down to meet the other girls for breakfast. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and jumped in a cab bound for the French Quarter.

We got out outside the Opera house, took a photo and walked in the direction of the Womans Museum. We stopped for icecream onthe way at 100% New Zealand Icecream; how I've missed Hokey Pokey Icecream.

We finally found the Womans Museum and boy was it a relief to get inside with some air conditioning.

The museum was interesting, it showed the lives of the woman on the streets, how they come into Hanoi from surrounding areas to make miney for their kids to go to school. And the women in the war and also fashion of the Vietnamese women throughout the times.

After that we walked up to the Malia hotel to see how much it was to use their pool, $30 per person so we jumped in a cab and went to the Hilton hotel where it was $18 to use their pool and gym.

The pool guy told it was going to rain soon so he said to go and have some lunch and then come back. So we went and had lunch in the restaurant inside the Hilton. It was a bit of a rip off but it was very fancy and we thought why not?! I just had a hawaiian pizza and a coke, kept it simple.

After eating it was already 2:00pm and the best part of the day was gone so we decided to go and finish some shopping off instead and Jess and I would hit the pool tomorrow for the good part of the day.

So we jumped in a cab and got out near the market. No shopping there as it's mainly for wholesale buyers. So we we looking in the surrounding streets and found some little places selling exactly the things we wanted.

after we all got what we wanted we jumped in another cab to go back to the hotel to dro off our things, cool off with a drink in the lobby then Rachel, Gaye and myself headed round the corner to the hospital.

No, nothing was wrong but we did see that for whatever reason they have a spa on level 5 of the hospital so we headed there for a massage.

We got a 2hr package which included a hot stone massage and an anti-stress facial. It was brilliant. Best massage ever. First time I've ever had a hot stone one and it was so nice. The facial was really good too.

When we finished we came outside and it was pouring with rain, lucky for us the hospital is literally round the corner about 50mtrs from the hotel so we jus ran ad didn't get too wet.

By this time it was 6:45pm and we were supposed to be meeting in the lobby at 7:00pm. So ai bolted upstairs to get ready. Jess was ready so I told her to tell tenothers I'd be down shortly. I showered, washed and dried my hair and got ready all in under 25mins, a new PB I think.

So because of that we met in the lobby at just before 7:15pm. There was 7 of us altogether because Anana and Bhavina joined us also. We jumped in a cab an headed for a restaurant that was recommended to us called Tamarind.

It was a half vegetarian place, half indian, so you could order off either menu. I hot chicken masala and butter naan bread and it was really good. I was so full but had to keep eating just because it tasted that good. At dinner we were also joined by two of the girls from ehat was the first half of our tour that went through Cambodia. We very briefly met them in Ho Chi Minh on their last night of that tour but they flew in to Hanoi today to the head to Halong Bay tomorrow. So, they decided to join us for dinner and farewell drinks as everyone else that was left from our tour leaves tomorrow.

After dinner we decided to do a little club/pub hopping. At this point we dod lose Anand and Bhavina as they didn't want to come out as they have an early flight tomorrow. <br style="line-height: 19px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" />First we started at a club called qDragonfly. Good mix of RnB/ commercial/house music and we were hanging with the locals. We stood put that's for sure But we didn't care.

We didn't stay here for too long, just a couple of drinks as the smoke was killing all our eyes. At this point we said goodbye to Sarah Jane and Gaye as they headed back to the hotel because they also fly out early in the morning.

So they remaining five of us walked a little bit down the road where we discovered Hanoi backpackers hostel which had a bar on tge ground level and it was just full, obviously, of backpackers. We had one drink here because they were super cheap before they closed that bar and told everyone to go down the road to a bar called Hair of the dog.

We weren't going to go in but when we spotted that they had a live band we went in; plus it was the only place still open basically that was packed. So we grabbed a drink and danced with all the drunken backpackers. It was stinking hot in there, it was actually cooler outside! But we stayed on. Rachel decided to leave just after midnight so it was just Siobhan and Arlene (the Irish girls) and Jess and I left. We weren't even on the same tour but we were the only ones still partying on. Eventually the band finished and they closed the downstairs area so we all moved upstairs. The music was good, the people were better and it was just a good night out, without even many drinks.

Eventually thought they kicked everyone out at just after 1:00am as nothing here stays open late. We wandered around for a bit seeing of there was anything else open but in the end we realised that was that. We said goodbye to our new friends and jumped in a cab to the hotel.

I'd gone 13 days without getting a tummy bug but tonight that all changed. All I can say is thankgod I came prepared and I was back in bed by about 4:30am after pumping myself full of drugs.

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