Thuy Nga Guest House Hanoi

... Mixing the concrete by hand, of course. It looks like the project will take a lifetime. We took another Mailinh cab back to the hotel, and this good experience cemented that they were a legit operation.

After a nap back at the hotel, we headed out for dinner to an LP-recommended joint in the north end of the French Quarter, relatively near our hotel, called Quan An Ngon. This was a legit restaurant with uniformed waitstaff, but set up ...

... by swimming on the Bay or relax or come to dining bar for International breakfast buffet at around 07:00. The Cruise will continue on taking us around the Bay this morning. The last route on the Bay will be Bai Tu Long Bay and our cruise will stop at the Hong Gai Wharf at around 10:30AM. We will transfer to our awaiting vehicle and drive back to Hanoi. Trip concludes in ...

... you from the corridor, something China's trains did not have; plus the tickets were cheaper than the Chinese trains; but, the beds were much shorter and poor old Tom just couldn't fit. So there we were, me in a damp sleeping bag (from the rain when our bags were on top of the mini van to phonsavanh) and Tom bent backwards trying to squeeze into a bed made for a man half his size! Needless to say we didn't get much sleep on that train!
We arrived in Hanoi ...

... inexpensive. For example, our meals in the restaurants are all home-cooked by Vietnamese locals, they are delicious with fresh ingredients and they only cost us a couple of dollars for a lot of food. And tap beer is about 25 cents per pint... wooohoooo!! The night we got in, we were very hungry so we went out on the street and got some mystery-meat from a nice Vietnamese lady. After we were done eating, I noticed there was a jar of, what looked like ...

... travel agents in the guidebook to see what they could offer. It was pretty much the same package, with a choice of either economy or deluxe, except that the travel agent was much more of a friendly guy and not half as pushy! When we returned to the hotel, the man pounced again, talking over and over again to us about the same facts about his boat tours, and repeatedly asking whether we would book it now, SInce our room remained occupied, we had no choice but to sit ...

... Roger' we were so surprised to see the son and wife of 'laughing teacher', they had been to our hotel to see if we were ok and had then come to look for us on instructions from Ann and Na, they had been concerned as we were upset when we left. It was lovely to see them and the concern that they had for us. After chatting for a while he gave us a lift back to our hotel and phoned to let the others know that we were ok. In the afternoon we went to the war graves it was ...

... to me and when I described it to the guide he told me it was 'very very dangerous'. When I asked him what he meant by this he said, quite nonchalantly, 'if bite maybe you die'. Hmm, let's just say that I was relieved to get back to the village and have a swim in the river with the pigs and the village children, until our guide told me that a tiger had killed a cow in the village a few weeks before! It was nice to get back to solid ground and civilisation in Huay Xai. Although ...

... t just a ploy to keep your custom, although there must be a tiny element of this, because he kept buying us meals even after money had changed hands and we were on our way out of town. He initially took us out for all you can eat sea food with his family and friends. We ate Duck legs (not very sea foody but they can swim), Clams, Calimari, BBQ clams, rice blood, lobster and raw clams. We tried everything except the raw clams because however nice your hosts are you aren’t ...

... again because it was going to close at 4:00 and it was already after 3:00. We went to a cafe near St Joe's and had water, Hanoi Beer, carrot cake (SO GOOD) and apple strudel. We then walked back to our hotel to catch up on booking hotels (Bill) and blogs (me) while we enjoyed Halida Beer. Bill had to make a few trips back and forth to Pinky Bar to get the beer. The Aussies were making fun of him. We went to Chica Restaurant. Bill ordered Aussie beef with ...

... and jump without falling. At the very top of one of these mountains is a temple and a man built dragon stretch across the side majestically on top. Really beautiful. On the way back to the wharf , we saw a group of people digging up a coffin. We were told that the remains are to be taken somewhere else to be reburied. The boat ladies told us not to look but we stared in fascination. Lol. Back on land, we decided to ride into the nearby ...