Apart from some banging of something knocking against the train at 4am last night we both had a good enough sleep. I was on the bottom bunk, Liam was on the top. We were all awake by about 7.30am, sorted ourselves out ready to get off and spent the last 15 minutes stood at the window watching the fields of Vietnam pass us by. It was pouring don with rain, and it just kept on coming even after arriving at the station.
We decided we had spent enough money on the train so we would walk to our hotel rather than pay for a taxi as you can be easily ripped off in those things. So we set off on our adventure to find the hotel with our big heavy bags on and our raincoats on. We were walking for about half a hour before we realised we had gone wrong. We had been keeping the river to our lefts but figured out we had actually been following the wrong river! We had been so busy trying to carry the weight of the bags and watching out for all the scooters and food stalls on the paths that we hadnt noticed. We stopped for a few minutes, got our bearings, ate a banana and set off again.
We walked past lots of busy food stalls with lots of Vietnamese in, we also walked past the school where Ho chi Minh studied as a child which is supposedly one of the most prestigious schools in Vietnam. All the children were outside playing some kind of volleyball game.
We were stopped several times asking if we wanted a ride, we should go to this hotel, that hotel, but we kept walking and it paid off.
After 2 hours we finally reached our hotel, wet, tired and a bit dirty from walking through puddles! The hotel is at the cheaper end of our budget but I'd wonderful. The staff are so friendly, as are all the other people we come across here in Vietnam, we were given a welcome drink, told where we could go for sight seeing, and shown to our room despite us being a couple of hours early for check in. The room is a really good size, lovely big bed again, tv, ac, en suite bathroom and fast wifi. They do laundry for quite cheap do we got lots of clothes out for laundry (washing in the sink only cleans things so much and it's nice to have a proper wash every few weeks), then settled down to mend broken things and organise ourselves a bit. We watched a few things online, watched the music channels on the tv, all whilst listening to the howling wind and rain pelting down outside! Couldn't have picked a better day to decide to have a few hours in the hotel room.
After showering we ventured outside at about 5pm to wander round the street shops and get a feel for the place. It was still pouring down with rain, everybody was in ponchos. But it was still warm so if you're covered it's not a problem really.We found a bar that had all the Halloween decorations up which drew us inside. They had 3 for 1 cocktails so we treated ourselves, and also shared a pizza and chips. It was AMAZING. We've kind of tried western food a few times since getting to Asia but its just not been right, as you would expect in Asia. But the pizza and fries were perfect, and even better they donate 20,000 dong to a childrens charity from every pizza sold.All in all for a large pizza, fries and 4 cocktails we paid just under £10. We stayed there for a while, soaking up Halloween, reading some magazines and finding a spot on the wall to write on with the pen they gave us.
We went for a bit more of a wander and found a shop that donated 20% of earnings to another charity, I saw a dress and shorts in there but they ended up not really looking right. Liam found a vietnamese style top which he bought. In the end I found a loose cotton top which she adjusted to fit me better there and then. I wasn't that happy with the price she was charging but after her adjusting I couldn't barter it down any more and I felt obliged to buy it! Liam pointed out I do need a loose shirt for travel days so it's practical....I just want something pretty!!
We walked back in the rain, bought a couple of cheap treats to pack tomorrow on our sight seeing day and back to the hotel. We enquired about something we had seen in the room brochure about the manager running s 'tea and talk programme' for local students to come and practice their English with volunteers who stay at the hotel. There was actually one being held tonight, even though it was towards the end of the session we went in to tie a look. There were 3 students, the manager and a couple from Moscow who live in London there to chat to them. They had been talking about anything the students wanted to talk about really, and correcting grammar as they went. I was really nice and informal, so we signed up to host tomorrows session.
We went back to the hotel room more than a little damp from the rain but happy because the place is nice and the people are all friendly. Liam went to sleep more or less straight away, I think a combination of a couple of long days and alcohol made him very tired! Sightseeing tomorrow, so lights out for a good nights sleep.
