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Articles Tagged ‘Hanoi’

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Hanoi – Farewell Ruth and Vietnamese Road Rules

Sunday, March 11th, 2007

It was back to Hanoi for a few days after Halong Bay. ruth and I spent our last days together shopping for xmas items for my family which she was to take home, recording a small xmas day video message for my family, and exploring the bars and clubs on offer and having a last few nights.

And then it was time for me to leave for China and say goodbye to southeast asia after a brilliant six months, and goodbye to Ruth who was the best travel partner i could have wished for (who else would stroke my arm to get me off to sleep when i asked?!) and was jetting off to Thailand for a little taste of the south islands before heading home.

On a side note – Vietnamese drivers are possibly the worst i had yet encountered. The horn is used very strictly in Vietnam, only for the following situations:

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Hanoi – Exhausted in Vietnam

Sunday, March 11th, 2007

It’s hard to sleep with people treading on your head. Granted i should not have slept down the aisle, but it’s far comfier than the squashed seats. Ever since Laos I had been kipping down on the floor, but the bus to Hanoi was the only time when i was constantly woken by an ill placed shoe or sandal. I spent most of the night awake. So at around three in the morning, when we stopped at a roadside cafe busy with Vietnamese slurping down large bowls of Pho, i decided to stretch my legs and ordered some congee – rice soup. The Vietnamese are clearly very passionate about their food. So passionate that a women approached me to show me how to eat my meal. In spite of any particular taste preference i may have had, the only way to eat this dish was to add lashings of sugar, soy, spices and chives. No arguing. This was the second time this has happened to me, it’s almost as if they take pity on foreigners who are deemed too stupid to eat it the correct way.

I don’t remember arriving in Hanoi, most probably because i was only half awake. Thankfully we found a fantastic hotel for just 8 dollars a night. Ocean Star – I highly recommend it.

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