Gia Bao Grand Hanoi

... I quickly met my GMC Group to give them my inputs as I would leave soon for the rest of the week. We were happy to discover that we jumped to the first place as of this week.

On Thursday evening after my Marketing for Financial Services class I headed back to my room to pack all my things for the short trip to Vietnam. So I headed straight to the airport where I took my Hong Kong Airlines Flight Number 518 to Hanoi. The flight lasted around 1 hour and 40 minutes. My ...

... divers vehicules? C'est la pari de Hanoi.

Pari qui pourrait sembler n'avoir aucune chance d'etre releve au premier coup d'oeil.

Mais a y regarder de plus pres...et a y experimenter...il se pourrait que ce soit la meilleure des solution!! Laisser les multiples vehicules zigzaguer au gre de leurs envies et des obstacles dans une sorte de ballet improvise et hypnotisant.

Hanoi grouille de 2 roues en tous genre. Etonnament, il est rarissime de croiser des 4 roues ...

... in one with four others – three Korean men and one Vietnamese woman. One man acted as a tour guide and translator for the two brothers, who looked to be in their mid forties - one of whom was married to the young Vietnamese woman, who did not speak any Korean, and he not a word of Vietnamese. Aside from the language barrier and obvious age difference, they seemed quite the happy couple.

The ride up river was calming and relaxing but for the wooden ...

... this time we knew we would be expected to buy at the end. The main problem Suzanna and I had was that we’d spent almost all the money we had on us, so couldn’t buy anything even if we wanted to. I tried to explain this to my “friend” and in the end we cut a deal were I paid her 10000 Dong for her to go away which turned out to be a fair price. Suzanna and I were pretty fed up by now and the rest of the ladies wouldn’t disappear despite us trying to loose them or ...

Monday 6th July

Our day started with a trip to the gym and a visit to the pool before heading to breakfast.

We eventually wandered out of the hotel and picked up two cycles to take us to the northern section of the Old Quarter. Our plan was to pick up the trail of the Lonely Planet Walking Tour that we didn't get to finish yesterday. That said, as we travelled ...

... awhile. Didnt do a ton of partying in these couple days but we certainly more than made up for it in the next while that followed Orginally we had planned to go to Sapa and then Halong Bay, but we met up with Kat our Australian friend who knew a huge group from her hostel who were going to Halong Bay the next day including the group from Ireland we kept meeting up the coast so we changed our plans and headed off to Halong!

... about it. We asked for rice and chicken, we got a plate of chicken bits you wouldn't give to the dog. I think both of us had one piece of meat each (there were heads, tendons, feet and other unidentifiable bits) and the meal cost £5 but by then we were so sick of being ripped off in Vietnam I felt like giving the guy my credit card and saying 'Please, take a holiday on it, my treat'. I had found myself chanting a mantra recently 'get me out of Vietnam ...

We arrived in Hanoi after a deluxe flight on Laos Airlines. I think it is one of the only airlines left that serves a full meal and a drink for free! As we left Laos and flew over the mountainous hills toward Vietnam, it was sad to see the extent of Laos effort to deforest their country. As far as our eyes could see, there were patches of land where forest had been replaced with crops and rubber tree plantations. It seemed that only the land in the most rugged and ...

... on here?!) so we may end up moving hotel, but I'm quite at home here to be honest.

In fact I feel very at home in the city itself, I almost feel like I've been here before which is a bit spooky. My Dad has always called me a "peasant", so maybe I was a Vietnamese peasant living here in the past?! You never know...

I enjoyed reading all about the history of Viet Nam from the 'American' war onwards (from an ...

... should be dropping off to sleep. Just give me a sign, God, God the Creator and God the Creation, just give me a sign that I’m not alone… that you really exist…

Nothing happens, neither bad nor good, backward or forward, so I lie rolled up in a little ball all night, witing for the inevitable… which never comes. Finally sunlight re-enters the window and I realize slowly that I’ve survived… whatever it was. I move ...