HANOI

15.10.08
A two hour flight on Vietnam Air found us in the north of Vietnam in Hanoi, the capital. We were met by a car from our hotel, City Gate Hotel in the old quarter. We persuaded the driver to go via the tour company Explorer Tours Vietnam to whom we had been talking about a boat cruise on Halong Bay. It took a bit of palm greasing but eventually we arrived at the Tour Company and made our bookings. We would be collected the next day from our hotel and transported down to Halong Bay.

We then continued to our hotel. The rooms were a mixture - John and Kate's room was tiny, whilst Mo and Deg's was slightly larger. However, the main problem was that the proprietor hadn't booked a single room for Cath. He was very kind and told us she could stay in a room in his house, which was next door but Cath looked nervous. She didn't really want to be separated from the rest of the group and we insisted that something else had to be done. He suggested that we share a "dorm room" with Cath and this was the final solution ... 3 in a room was fine by us. And it meant we had a large, airy room for U$30. Good value.

Of course, by now it was getting very late and when we went out on the streets to find something to eat, most of the small cafes were closed. However, Deg eventually found us a nice little eatery on the top floor of a nearby hotel. All's well that ends well.

16.10.08
In the morning, Cath and I were up early and hastened out into the streets to see if we could purchase a birthday treat for Guy. Yes, it's his birthday today!! As we walked along, we found some wonderful tiny sugary donuts which, after sampling, we decided were ideal to start a birthday breakfast. We returned with them to the hotel. There we found Guy and the others just starting breakfast ... Vietnamese coffee, bread roll and jam. The sugary donuts went down a treat! (I have to have a tiny whinge about the coffee. I don't take sugar in my coffee but I do like milk. Vietnamese coffee is made either black or with condensed milk. So I had to make a choice of black coffee or very, very sweet.)

	After breakfast, we spent some time on the street outside our hotel taking photos of the passing parade whilst we waited for our transport to Halong Bay. Our street seemed to sell all sorts of foodstuffs ... meat, vegetables, fruit. And there was a tiny stall selling steaming pho bo for the morning rush.
The photo above left shows the East Gate, or Cua O Quan Chong, after which our hotel was named. Originally one of sixteen gates providing access into the old walled city of Hanoi, it is the only gate remaining.

CITY GATE HOTEL

10 Thanh Ha Street, Hanoi

Phone: 8280817

Email: citygatehotel@gmail.com     Website: www.citygatehotel.com.vn