Halong Bay to Hanoi - 12th July 2009

I had set the alarm for 5.11am, in the hope that I'd be up in time to see the sun rise. I popped outside, but it looked to me as if it was already slightly light, so I presumed the sun had risen. I told Anja, and then went back to bed, until 7am, when I got up, and on getting dressed was told that we'd have to go for breakfast soon as we'd soon be in Halong City.
Breakfast was the same, yet again!
We arrived in Halong City, were transfered to a minibus, and by 8am, we were on our way back to Hanoi. We didn't stop on the way this time, which was a pain, as I got very stiff again. I tried reading, but felt a bit sick, probably not helped by the driving.
As always, it took ages to get to Hanoi, and we arrived about 11.30am.
First stop was for food, as we were very hungry at this point. We popped into the very french styled cafe which was lovely and air-conditioned. It sold some beautiful cakes, and delicious coffee. Next stop was to a sandwich shop, where we had half a bagette each, with different fillings. Although we were a bit nervous in general about eating salad, this cafe was very professional and served up some delicious, washed, clean food.
We went into the hotel where we'd stayed previously, and the lady who had booked our tour was there. She'd heard about the typhoon, and was extremely helpful, asking about our trip and offering any assistance we needed. We mentioned that the trip should have included lunch, but because of arriving back early, we didn't get any. She had lifted up the phone almost immediatly, and phoned up the tour operators, who then offered us a partial refund. We had had our itinary changed too, as we'd agreed to two nights on the boat due to an overbooking at the hotel, and we hadn't realised that in agreeing we'd miss out on a few things; unfortunatly we/nor the company could do much about this though.
When we were leaving the hotel to go to Halong Bay, we were able to leave our large rucksacks there free of charge, which was really helpful. The lady had also offered me a double room with a/c, fan, tv, internet, buffet breakfast included, en-suite... (and free fruit in room!) for only $16! I wasn't sure whether I should over-endulge myself, but on returning to the hotel I decided that it was only for one night, and it was better than moving my stuff, and the lady had been awfully kind to us, booking tickets, extremely quick visa services etc.
We went up to my room, and within seconds Anja managed to cover all surfaces with her luggage! She was reoganising it ready for the flight so that her 36kg could somehow dwindle down to the limit of 20kg (at least in the rucksack anyway!). I was happy just entertaining myself on the internet until Anja was ready to go out again.
We then headed out on a cyclo to the nearest mall, as Anja wanted to get some flipflops still. Inside, there was my first Asian supermarket! They were selling the tops that Mai had been wearing that had covers for her hands so they didn't burn. We bought some delicious snacks, before doing a bit of shopping. Anja managed to find quite a few items of clothing which suited her well, and at a bargain price! Unfortunatly she didn't find any flipflops that she liked. Annoyingly enough, the sellers try to persuade you to buy shoes that don't even fit you! It's really annoying! And they rarely have any of their shoes in other sizes than the one on offer, and if they do, they can't be bothered getting it out.
After a quick look at a camera shop, which was just as expensive as in the UK, it started to rain, so we took a taxi back. We'd waved down a lady taxi driver; supporting our fellow females as they are usually a lot nicer and more trustworthy than the men. Unfortunatly it seemed it wasn't so, as the lady's metre seemed to be working at double the speed, so in the end we paid a bit less then she'd asked for, as we felt she had been taking us for granted. How annoying that she was female! Letting down our sex.
We went out for dinner and then it was time for Anja to leave. We said our goodbyes, and arranged for her to contact me when she'd found somewhere for us to stay in Saigon.
I then spent the rest of the evening, having a rather enjoyable time on the internet, blogging and listening to Classic FM online.