Day 84 - Hanoi

The train pulls into Hanoi Ga at a pitch black 4.30am. Our sleeper cabins are predominately full of Vietnamese and hardly any foreigners get off the back section of the train, however at the other end, there are several high end private carriages attached where the fare is more than double the price, the cabins are lined with wood and you get fresh fruit and a carriage attendant, with only 4 beds per compartment. Low and behold, hordes of westerners flow out of these cabins and I could be at a train station in London. Leaving the station I am surprised at how many foreign people there are here, it's a big difference to China, where you see only a handful of foreign people in most places.

Getting to my hotel at a bright 5am I have to wake up the sleeping guard to let me into the hotel so I can drop off my bags, I potter about and arrange my things for an hour or so and then head out into town for a bright 6.30am Hanoi start. It's a busy and bustling city and the amount of motorbikes on the road is ridiculous, it's like playing a computer game with the motorbikes the bombs trying to hit you as you walk across the road. A walk around Hanoi's major sights and to Hoan Kiem lake, which reputedly has giant tortoises living in it, one specimen found dead a few years ago weighed in at 250kg and was 2.1 long, it's stuffed in a museum and is crazy big. With no one to witness it, I saw what I thought was a seal's head surface out of the water and move along a few feet before diving back under again. I swear that this thing was massive and it felt like spotting Nessie. My camera was in my bag so unfortunately no photos to back my claim. It's supposed to be good luck if you spot one, so maybe it's an omen for the rest of my Vietnam travels.

The other adventure today is getting lost. After a walk to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, I think I am walking back to the hotel, but somehow manage to double back on my self, and end up walking in the exact wrong direction. Then consistently for about two hours, I think to my self, I will walk around and find my way, but always seem to walk almost perfectly in the opposite direction to which I should be going. I finally hit a road on the map and take what I think is the right way only to find out at the end that I went the wrong direction. It takes just shy of 3 hours to eventually walk back home... at a fast pace.