-Hanoi, 8am-
So last night was fun. After repacking my entire bag to put it in a slightly more logical order, we headed out for dinner. Jason wasn’t a big fan of us going anywhere with ‘real’ seats, but two girls in skirts persuaded him and we ended up in a little place with great food [current Jenny: I completely failed at taking food photos or writing down where I ate for this entire trip so expect some vague descriptions]. And we had a lot of food. No photos because I was too excited but: spring rolls, morning glory with garlic, chicken with cashews, beef with lemongrass and chili. All the food plus beers came to about £4 each.
Later, in an art gallery that opened up to a little bar on the street, we had three beers for 75,000 VND. This is about £2.30. Ridiculous. [Current Jenny: if only I knew it would get cheaper]. We also walked through the night markets and laughed a LOT at Jason’s Vietnamese haggling (which never really worked).
-Hanoi, 10pm-
Busy day! Up early to visit Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. Literally his
dead, embalmed body is on display. Kinda creepy. Discovered the Vietnamese really love him. Huge queues and crowds everywhere of tourists and locals. Then we walked a pretty long way around Hồ Tây (West Lake) and blagged our way into a swanky hotel to sunbathe and chill by the pool. Which was lovely until it started to piss it down. Finding cover in a westernised restaurant, I had a Magners (sweet sugary cider heaven) and crab and artichoke ravioli. Then I headed back ready to meet my group.
At 6pm I met Channy, our CEO (Chief Experience Officer) [current Jenny: I LOVE Channy. This will be obvious in the coming posts]. As he started talking through our itinerary, I was worried I was the only one doing my trip. But
instead it turns out I was joining a group of 17 people who had already been travelling together for three weeks. That terrifies me even more. Luckily at dinner, they all welcomed me to the family. Small issue that most of them were hungover so most seemed subdued but nice. Guess I’ll find out more in the next two weeks – although there is another Brightoner on the trip (well, Peacehaven…). Tomorrow we fly to Laos and are joined by a local tour guide as that’s part of their communist law.
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