Day 53 and 54: In Sickness and in Trains. Hanoi

Day 53

We sleep in and miss breakfast so we venture out in search of some, this turns out to be a little of a wild goose chase. All the coffee shops around the hotel we found yesterday are just that, shops that sell coffee and we can't find anywhere that does food. After a half hour of walking and Ben looking peakier, we go back to the hotel and order some food to the room. This is where we stay for the rest of the day whilst Ben tries to sleep off the tummy bug that I need to have shaken. It's not that much of a hard life though with room service and films, so won't complain too much.

Day 54

We wake up as spritely as elves this morning and Ben looks loads better. We are checking out today and heading towards the hopeful warmer and dryer, Hue. So breakfast, pack and hit the city again, hoping that today can change our mind about Hanoi so far.

It's still drizzling but hoods on we set off, first stopping at a 3 story indoor market that's sheer chaos. It's jam packed with counterfeit goods, clothes and a whole floor of material, all of which is piled up 12ft high with half a metre gap between each stall. The place also smells strongly of wee so we don't stay long. 

A little way down the road we spot a hostel come bar. It has food, beer, films playing and a pool table, perfect so we set up camp for a few hours and the tally reaches 13-4 on the table. After I get bored of losing and Ben overheats, we set off again to find the Revolution Museum. We have to pass the Hoan Kiem lake which I'm sure looks beautiful in the summer but to us is just damp and a bit grey so we walk around it, taking in all the fancy shops either side. The museum is just around the corner and only £1.25 each to get in so we wander around, glad to be out of the rain.

The revolution museum is all about Vietnam gaining its independence from France and the "American War" so it's quite interesting to wander around and take in their slightly biased view (who can blame then? We are the same about ours) We stay for about an hour then go find some food. We settle on a Korean BBQ restaurant, which is such an expensive anti climax, all my food is covered in processed dressing and Ben's was over cooked. It's getting close to 6pm now so we go back to the hotel to collect our bags and wait for our taxi to the train station, I'm quite excited about tonight's transport as we are going on a sleeper train.

The hotel, Posh Hotel, have given us great customer service for our whole stay with them and extend it to our leaving. A porter comes with us to the train station and even takes us to our cabin, he also looked a bit shocked when we tipped him so I think he normally does it as standard, very cool. Our space for the night is a 4 bed cabin, which already has a french couple in the two bottom bunks, we climb up to the top and settle in for the night with our blankets and pillows. I can't tell you how nice it is to sit crossed legged, with a duvet around my lap writing this whilst I feel the train move around me, this might just become my favourite way to travel.