Ok so we missed our overnight train back to Hanoi, (by about half an hour so no one but ourselves to blame really) Unfortunately pulling the ” we’re-poor-defenseless-females-all-alone-please-take-pity-on-us” really doesnt work here. They literally laugh in your face, which isn’t meant to be rude (well at least I dont think it is), but obviously it is in the UK so I couldnt help feeling like lamping the ticket man. (he was half my size I could have had him Im sure) Basically they were telling us we couldnt even buy tickets for the next train that night becuase it was full (though im pretty sure it wasnt, there were people buying tickets beside us) so in the end we gave up- it was getting increasingly difficult to keep our cool! Thankfully my plane wasnt the next night so I wasnt going to miss my flight, tho sara and kath had to change their bus tickets to Laos which they were going to miss.
So we found a guesthouse opposite the station which wasnt really so bad, though the furniture consisted of a cardboard box with a tv perched on top and god knows who did the decorating but there was this random lone tile above the toilet in the bathroom of this naked vietnamese lady posing in what she probably thought was a seductive way but it had us in hysterics for a while – especially for vietnam – they are usually so conservative!
Anwyay we couldnt reserve seats that night for the morning train, so I got up at 8:00 and managed to get tickets but they only had hard seaters left, which turned out to be wooden benches with vertical backs for what I thought was going to be 8 hours but ended up being 10! AAAAAARGHHHH the pain! Actually it was pretty funny – we are total retards really. And apart from the horrible men asking for our services (they thought we were prostitutes which unless they were jokeing i totally dont get – i was wearing a pair of old jeans, a hoody, and hugging a soft toy – twisted?!) it went pretty quickly.
So we got into Hanoi yesterday evening and went out for a much needed meal (though the place we went to was hilarious – it took three attempts at ordering before we established that they only had two choices on the menu (out of the 23 listed!!!) It was a pretty nice bar as well, this place is just wacked! In fact its a pretty common sight to see your waiter running across to the market to buy the ingredients for the meal you have ordered!
So I went back to the guesthouse where we had left our big luggage to find the mad hatter of a girl who worked there hadnt reserved us a room like we had asked and instead she sent us off with what i assume was one of her friends to a hotel nearby. Oh yeah and every cash point we tried within a two mile radius had run out of cash! (youve just got to laugh!!)
So today Im getting the bus to the airport at 3:30 where if all goes to plan (which this time it will!!!) I should be flying to singapore tonight! I will definitely miss the madness once im gone i reckon but right now im in need of a holiday!!!!
posted Wednesday May 2006