Thursday 20th March 2008

It was to be our last day in Hanoi and Vietnam today so we didn't bother setting any alarms and slept in until about 10.30am. We only woke then because there was someone outside our building singing songs on a really loud karaoke machine! We checked the time, agreed it was about time we did something and got ourselves ready. We took ages to get out and when we finally did, we decided that it was too late for breakfast - and went straight for lunch instead.

This afternoon we decided to walk over to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum - it was on the other side of the city, but figured that the walk would do us good. We probably should've done some research first because, not only was it further than we thought but, it's shut in the afternoons - and not open at all on Fridays... d'oh! We hung around the area and visited his palace and famous 'stilt house' before catching a cyclo back to our side of town. Our driver dropped us off at the Woman's Museum (which is all about the Vietnamese women during the war). The poor cyclo driver looked exhausted as he cycled off, but then he was carrying both of us - some Westerners have to get cyclos of their own and you see families being carried along in convoy.

We explored some more of the city and then headed back to our guest house. It was really humid and on the way we stopped at a tiny street bar to get some drinks (I say tiny, it was just a table, an umbrella and some stools on the pavement). The little old lady serving us was lovely and when we took a picture of her 'bar' she was well impressed - we don't think she'd ever seen a digital camera before and wanted to pose with Nikki for loads of pictures. When we'd finished our drinks, we said our goodbyes and walked round to a photo shop because we needed some passport photos. When we were there we printed off one of the photos and took it back to the old lady as a gift. She saw us coming and started waving. When we handed her the picture, we walked away and she started getting all excited - cooing and showing it to all her friends - bless her.

This evening we met up with some of the people from our Halong Bay trip. We went for drinks and then a meal with Grimey (Graham from Australia (but lives in London)), Sharpey (from Australia), and Sammy and Katie (from Kuala Lumpur). We all met at different times and while we were finishing our drinks, we got chatting to two other people who were on their own and invited them along. They were Anne (from America) and Zade (from England (Stoke City fan!!)). We went to a really great restaurant and the food was superb. We had an amazing time and it was the perfect way to say goodbye to Vietnam!

Honestly, Vietnam is one of the best places we've visited... WE LOVE IT!