Hanoi

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Whilst in Hoi An, poor old Issy was never all that well. Her toe that she injured on the slide at the Mekong hurt when she had to walk, so she had a bandaid on that (and I was still putting detol on it each evening). Couldnt wear closed in shoes, so had to wear Sam's trendy bright green hairy thongs, and generally was a little on the whingy side. We had a dreadful flight from Danang (Hoi an) to Hanoi, she was chucking up everywhere. Finally, checked into the Golden Sun Hotel, and its got a lift! (yes there is a god!) lucky for us as the boys are on the 7th floor and Issy and I on the 6th! Again its a nice clean hotel and this time the staff could not do enough for you. Very very pleasant. Great bar out the front and across the road from the hotel...spent many hours enjoying a long island iced tea!

Is didn't want lunch and by late afternoon had a bit of a temperature. I thought at that stage she was coming down with a cold...(no, swine flu didnt cross my mind!). Went down the street early evening and got her a takeaway pizza (pretty gross she says!) as she didnt want to come out for tea either. Finally when I got home that night and went to do the toe again, I noticed a thick red line starting to travel up her foot. She also mentioned that she was a little sore in the groin area. Decided she'd be fine till morning and I'd contact reception for a Doctor then.

Morning arrives, the red line is a little closer to her ankle now, so go down to reception and get the name and address of a medical clinic. Janine comes with me after growling that I should have organised this lastnight and seen a doctor! Head off in a taxi to the clinic, unfortuately the taxi driver has no idea where the medical clinic is and drops us off in the wrong place. Go into a couple of shops asking till we end up at a foreign language book shop and somebody speaks english. We are on the wrong side of the road and at the wrong end of the road. But at least we are on the correct road! I was very impressed with the medical clinic (SOS). We saw a very nice South African doctor who did his best to keep the cost down (still ended up costing $300) and gave Issy three antibiotic tablets. Most of them for the first 3 days made her feel really ill when she had to take them (4 times a day), after a few days though she was back to her reasonably happy self again😊

I love walking through the old quarter in Hanoi. The streets are no where near as wide as Saigon, its no where near as busy either. You still can't walk on the footpaths because of motorbikes parked there, so spend your time walking on the street hoping the traffic will go round you! Each street in Hanoi is dedicated to 'something'. Last year the hotel we were staying on was sticky tape and plastic bag street, but right near us was lollie and chip street (the kids liked this one!), then there is hardware street, toy street, glassware street, linen street and so on and so on. Makes for a very interesting walk.

I ended up getting a quilt made up at Vietnam Quilts, I supplied the material and they handmake it and send it home (should be here by xmas). The company is a non-profit organisation who employ rural ladies to make the quilts and then put the profits back into the comunity. The material cost three times more than the quilt to make! Last year I had a lovely one made up for Issys room.

We had a afternoon at the chocolate buffet at the Metropole hotel...next time we go to Hanoi maybe we can splurge and stay here! It is a lovely, lovely hotel. The kids love the chocolate buffet, but unfortunately I don't think anyone except maybe Hamish or Sam got close to value! I know I certainly didn't! Last year I think I managed 3 plates of chocolate, this year I was pushing it at 2! Issy felt decidely ill after 1 plate and looked very green there for a short time! On the way home J9 organised a rickshaw ride for all the kids, as usual the drivers happily agree on a price, and then when you get to your destination they change it. They didnt pull the wool over j9s eyes and left pissed off with what they'd originally agreed to!

Sam had a blast shopping in Hanoi.....quite confident to go out on his own and do some bargining. I only gave him x amount of dong though so he couldnt be too ripped off! He was desperate to find a copy Stoke City shirt, but unfortunately for him they only do Chelsea, Man u, Arsenal(?) and Liverpool. I doubt they will ever do a Stoke shirt! (When coming back into Perth airport Sam was wearing his stoke shirt and as an immigration guy walked past him he said ...best shirt in the world mate!....he came and had a talk to us while we waiting for our bags and he originally came from Blythe bridge (i think))

So that is just about the end of the holiday. Had another flight back to Saigon for the night and a very early morning flight to Singapore. Phil, J9, Glenda and I took the 'boys' out to a bar at Clarke Quay in Singapore that you have 'shots' from syringes and drink (suck) a cocktail out of 'drip bag'. The bar is based on a hospital. The chairs look like hospital beds etc. Very, very, very expensive and very very noisy. I don't think j9 heard how much it all was going to cost or I'm sure she wouldnt have gone for the lot. We ended up have a 'syringe water pistal' fight and was a real laugh. j9 decided for how much it all cost that surely the syringes included.....security caught up with her and said ....I don't think so!

We'd had a few drama's at the airport in Singapore with Len and a meat cleaver he bought in Vietnam that he didnt declare, at one stage we thought he might be spending the night in Changi.....but hey thats another story for another time!

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