24th April 2010
The train journey from Lao Cai to Ha Noi last night was a nightmare and neither of us slept a great deal. Luckily we shared a cabin with an Australian couple who were really nice and we chatted with them for a while before turning in, but once the lights were out, the lurching movement of the train and the smells of smoke coming from the toilet didn’t help with sleeping. We arrived in Ha Noi pretty tired.
The Australian couple were booked into our old hotel in Ha Noi, Splendid Star 2, so we shared a taxi, since one of our bags was still there. We had to wake up the staff to let us in and because it was a holiday weekend, they were full so couldn’t let us have a room. All four of us sat in the breakfast area and chatted for a while.
As soon as we reached a ’normal’ time, we headed out to get some money from the ATM. The streets of Ha Noi were empty and quiet, none of the usual manic traffic and noise. A very strange experience, things were really only just getting going. People were exercising around the lake. With the cool temperature, it made for a pleasant wander around the city.
We spent the next few hours using the internet and enjoying breakfast at the Highlands Coffee shop near the cathedral. It was then back to the hotel to collect our remaining bag and onto the airport.
We flew to Da Nang, which is the nearest airport to Hoi An at about 30km away. We jumped in a taxi to go to the hotel and thought everything was fine, until the driver stopped on the way into Hoi An and a lady got off a scooter to join us and show him the way. Her English was quite good and she said he didn’t know the way so she was helping him out. She then went on to say she owned a tailor shop and if we needed clothes while we were here in Hoi An (Hoi An is famous for its tailors) she would do us a good price. We said we weren’t getting stuff made here because we had already had stuff done in Saigon. We’re still not sure whether the taxi driver genuinely didn’t know the way, or we were just subject to a sales pitch. But, no harm done, we still got to our hotel.
The hotel is quite nice, a bit out of town, but they have a shuttle bus that runs every 30 mins. It also has a pool which is nice in the heat here. We crashed for a few hours before going out to a restaurant called Cafe 43 for some delicious and cheap local food. It was then back to the hotel for an early night.
