Good morning SE Asia!: 01/11/13 & 02/11/13

After a long, loud and bumpy train journey trough pitch black Vietnamese country side and probably only a few hours of decent sleep, we arrived back in Hanoi at 5.20am. We got of the train and found our bikes already waiting for us on the platform. There were two other bikes which turned out belonged to two older guys who seemed to be touring Vietnam. We were two tired to start to have a chat with them and just wanted to get to our hotel.

Easier said then done. We forgot to load the route from Hanoi train station to our hotel to the GPS. The hotel was only about 1km from the train station, but we had absolutely no idea in which direction. We decided to sit down and have a coffee in a nearby café with WIFI. We got the coffee no problem, but the WIFI that was promised in big letters on the sign outside the café was non-existent. After we finished the coffee, Greg walked equipped with the laptop into three different nearby hotels to ask to use their WIFI whilst I guarded the bikes. After his third attempt he returned with printed directions from googlemaps, as all two hotels had problems with their WIFI and Greg couldn't connect our laptop in the last place either.

We got to the hotel about 2 hours after our train had arrived. Nice place though tucked away in one of the less busy side streets of Hanoi, but had to pay an extra 20USD for an early check-in. We would have had to wait until 2pm otherwise and we both couldn't face Hanoi without a shower and some breakfast. We were tired and thought about a nap but decided that it would be better to stay up, make the most of the day and have an early night instead. We did have a little break in the room though.

After a quick online search of things to do in Hanoi, Greg found a nearby pool which seemed like a good idea. We had breakfast and jumped on our bikes to find the pool which was about 5km from the hotel near the West lake. The area seemed to be quite upmarket and Westernised, the houses were more modern and newer looking than in other parts. We also saw a few Westerners who looked like they might live here.

The pool was very nice; an Olympic size pool, only slightly run-down and we paid only 30.000 dong each (90 pence), but strangely it was totally empty. No idea why. Maybe 30 degrees is too cold for the Vietnamese to swim? We spent a few hours there. I mainly stretched my tired muscles and floated in the water, whereas Greg actually found the energy to swim 1.5km. He must be running Duracell batteries!

The next day we woke up early and well rested after a long sleep. Greg went off to a nearby Gym on the top floor of a shopping mall. They offered gym and sauna for 15USD. A good deal and it seemed a good idea as Greg was keen to start using some different muscles other than his legs. In the meantime I was desperate for a few girly hours and treated myself to a manicure in the hotel spa and a shopping spree in the other levels of the shopping mall. Turned out to be very difficult though to find anything that was remotely my size. The girls here are absolutely tiny, no waist or hips it seems. I was successful in the end and bought myself a little summer dress.

We met up again after a few hours and decided to grab some lunch. We followed a Lonely planet recommendation for a restaurant not too far from the shopping mall and searched up and down one street for the address just to find out that the place was shut. Not sure if Lonely planet is always that up to date, despite the info being from 2012. I guess things change frequently here though.

After lunch we had a wander around Hanoi. Crazy place! We sat down for some bia hoi (some kind of home-brewed lager for 15p per glass) which we hadn't tried the first time we came to Hanoi and walked to one of the main markets. It was great to just enjoyed the wonderfully chaotic atmosphere of the city. It somehow felt more real and less overwhelming after having been in Vietnam for a while.