A shoppers paradise and getting evicted!

I left the girls in bed and went out to find a new hotel for us. Hanoi in the daytime was a completely different city to the one I saw the previous night. The streets were noisy and littered with people selling all sorts of produce, from fruit and vegetables to fish and coffee.

After inquiring at about half-a-dozen or so guesthouses and hotels I found one that appeared to be perfect - Central Stars Hotel. Located about two minutes walk from Hang Bac, the main 'backpackers' street, and right by a selection of restaurants, bars and the kerbside 2,000VND glasses of beer ('bia hoi').

The room I was shown had four beds and I was told would cost only US$16 per night. So I reserved the room and walked back to The Happy Backpackers to tell Andi & Gaby the good news.

After we had eaten our breakfast of baguette, jam, a banana and a cup of tea we walked to our new guesthouse only to be told that the room was taken and that our new room - with only two beds - was really going to cost US$18 per night. (With 20/20 hindsight we should have left then and found a different place to stay.)

We checked in anyway and went out to explore Hanoi’s Old Quarter. It’s like nowhere else I’ve seen. Street after street of narrow shops selling just about anything you could ever want - silk, clothes, bags, jewellery, phones, sunglasses, shoes, engraved stamps, artwork, pottery, postcards, kitchen utensils, air-con units - all stacked from the floor of the shop to its ceiling.

Whilst wandering the streets we bumped into Neil & Jess - yet again - and arranged to meet them that night for drinks and dinner. The meeting never took place - we were late and missed them - and so that was the last time that we were to see them. (Or so we thought!)

We ate lunch at a beautiful cafe near the Hoan Kiem Lake called the Little Hanoi - not to be confused with the restaurant of the same name! - where I had a Nicoise salad with extra avocado and Gaby began my education in coffee. It was expensive, but the food, coffee and service were exquisite.

That night we sampled a few glasses of the 2,000VND glasses of bia hoi before heading to the Little Hanoi restaurant, which was extremely busy - which is always a good sign, unless of course, that it means that the service is rubbish! I had a vegetable curry and a plate of steamed vegetables - very tasty - and Gaby & I shared a bottle of Extra Strong Dalat Red Wine. I felt sorry for the girls sat at the table next to us, as I got more drunk the chopstick skills degenerated and the laughter became uncontrollable. After dinner we drank a few cocktails at Half Man, Half Noodle and The Red Lounge before returning to our guesthouse extremely drunk, but happy.

A great night out!


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The next day Maria & Michelle arrived on the bus having missed all the flooding - it was even sunny in Hoi An. We spent next few days wandering the stalls and shops of the Old Quarter, drinking coffee and eating fruit from the street.


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After comparing prices at a number of different tour operators we booked our Ha Long Bay trip with Sinh Cafe - on a recommendation - for US$40 per person. When we returned to our guesthouse we were told that if we didn’t book our trip through them - at an inflated price - then they didn’t have a room for us. So we packed, emptied the fridge of water and went to the lobby to check-out or get thrown out. They wanted us to pay full price for the rooms plus for our laundry which we refused - we were being evicted after all! - so they said that they would phone the police. We said, "Fine" and waited, even though it was obvious that they hadn’t phoned them, but we were enjoying telling everyone who walked through the lobby what was happening!

After about half-an-hour the 'stand-off' ended when we slapped a couple of hundred thousand VND on the counter - about half what it should have been - and we left.

We booked ourselves into the Nok War Storage guesthouse on Hang Bac Street, it was small, noisy and bright, but at US$10 per night it would do for one night. After checking-in we walked to the nearby Cho Dong Xuan Market which was extremely disappointing - rude sellers and crap goods.

That night we ate at the 69 restaurant - the food was excellent bit the service mediocre - and got drunk. We deserved it after the day we had endured!