Hanoi Advisor Hotel

... trip the next day. Olly joined me. We thought we could find our way back to the hostel, but after walking fifteen minutes realised we had no idea where we were and were totally lost. We asked some locals, but they were useless and apparently had no idea either. We eventually found a street that was on our map, and realised what we'd done was walk in totally the wrong direction from the club. We corrected our course, and ten minutes later were back at the hostel. Excellent navigation skills.

... hotel were less than helpful. Just opposite the travel agent we found a hotel that looked clean and tidy - when we viewed a room the guy said they had only just opened a few days ago. Even though it was quite a bit more money it was a no-brainer and we booked in for the rest of our time in Hanoi. Outside on the street we bumped into JD (the American we had met in China) and we arranged to meet them later to go to the Water Puppetry Theatre and dinner. We walked down to the ...

... of arrival I was in to see the Dr. He was an American Dr and took one look at it and concurred with me that it in fact was infected. He asked how much pain I was in and if I needed any pain medicine. I stopped to think about it and for about 15 seconds I had a college days flashback of experimenting with “legal” drugs via pain medications but in the end declined. He prescribed Augmentin, for the next seven days and said I’d see a marked improvement ...

... here is slower, quieter, and cooler.
The next day, me and a friend decided to rent some motor bikes and head to a city 3 hours east of here. We rented our bikes and headed for the small town of Bac Ha. During the drive, we came across the Chinese border crossing. It was interesting to see/know we were that close to China. After getting lost only a handful of times we arrived in Bac Ha around 3 p.m. We took a ...

... why I was wearing t-shirt that promoted…mens underwear. Yikes, that may explain the funny looks I get on the street from people that are walking by.

Then last evening I went out walking around my new neighborhood with the guy I’m staying with, Tim. He was showing me where certain landmarks were, where to hire a motorbike, catch a taxi, grab a beer. Then we walked to Citimart to get a few ...

... Pagoda, which left one more thing for us all to do before we went our separate ways. We went to the theatre. Not your traditional theatre, but a puppet theatre, and it’s not traditional puppetry either. It was in fact water puppetry!!. Yup it all takes place in water and is a traditional art form in Vietnam. It was great and surprisingly action packed.. We all enjoyed it and it made for a nice end to my parents visits. The next day we left them for their last day and headed south to ...

... By this point we saw out flight was at 8:35, and that we would need to get up in time for the 4:30am mini-bus, so our clock was set for 3:50.

It seemed like in no time at all we were awake and running (not quite, but we were walking quite quickly) to the minibus. We arrived and were told $2, but since we knew it was actually supposed to be 25,000 VND, he gave up the dollar game pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I think he was trying to maximize his profits ...

... was also where a lot of American POWs were kept after being shot down during the Vietnam War. They included former presidential buffoon, sorry candidate, John McCain. The conditions for the POW's were dramatically different to their Vietnamese counterparts and revolutionaries. The US captives had good food, could play games like football and volleyball, were allowed to Church, had many extra supplies and looked to be having a whale of a time in the photos. I'll leave it up to your ...

... be that, but I had several layers on and was shivering. Eventually we arrived at Vieng Xai, how depressing was that? The rain didn't help because that meant the streets were completely caked in mud. But the whole look and feel of the place was depressing. We eventually found the Thavisay Hotel which Lonely Planet describe as 'promising to be the best in town' (it was being renovated), well I can tell you guys it is not very promising AT ALL. It did have ...

All these streets and lanes and boulevards look the same, and here at night, its even worse. I have only been here for 3 hours and I have already managed to get totally lost. I turn a corner, "you want motorbike?" - "No thanks", "where you going? Get you there quick", "no thanks". Keep walking. Oppressive. Intimidating. It feels different here. I am no longer in Laos that's for sure. Every Rue has the same cafes on it, the same fonts are used, its all French after all. This place feels like ...