Hanoi 30th April

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HANOI 30^thApril

Today didn’t get up so early. After breakfast we went to the Women’s Museum. Another great place and it took a few hours to walk around and look at everything. Vietnamese women were very strong and passionate about their country during the wars and quite a few died for the country. We also stopped in at a place called the Hanoi Old Citadel Northern Gate. It was built in 1805 during the Nguyen dynasty reconstruction of the Thang Long Citadel. This is the only one of 5 external gates that survived the French’s military attack and subsequent destruction of the walls in the late 19^th century.

After this went and had Bun Chau for lunch which is a fantastic dish of pork belly, sweet and sour sauce with some finely chopped vegetables and noodles. You get it eat in kiddies chairs and sometimes on the footpath. You get all the ingredients separately and just add them together.

Came back to the hotel for a shower and rest as we catch the train to Sapa tonight.

Guide picked us up and we have joined 6 others for the Sapa tour. He took us to dinner first and had something different again. Fried noodles and fried eggs that look like baked potato with fresh spring rolls, noodles and beef.

On the train now – this train is a lot nicer than the other train we caught. We are in a sleeper cabin with 2 others from our group. Train gets in at 5.30 in the morning.

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