Hanoi(ss) Welcome
Clunk, clunk, clunk – the train was quite a bumpy ride which made it hard for some of us to get to sleep (but others slept like logs). When most of us were woken up by the train engine and the sound of the tracks clashing together we were ready to eat our pre-packed breakfast and greet Hanoi.
We were tired and some had headaches so when we found that another 2 hours of train travel were coming our way you can imagine we were slightly Hanoi-ed. We managed to keep ourselves busy by playing cards, charades and generally talking to one another in the tiny rooms and the corridor.
As we traveled through Vietnam we had a great opportunity to view rolling hills, grazing buffalo, small towns, and fields. It was eye opening to see the people in their small houses in the little towns with next to nothing as we cruised along past on an overnight express train. This was really quite a stand-out factor for some of us and it caused us to think and reflect on our current situations.
The overnight train experience was a really enjoyable (although uncomfortable) trip for many of us. The idea of doing it again someday is exciting considering we now have the knowledge that we are capable of doing so, but we think we can speak for all of the group when we say it will be lovely to sleep in a bed that does not move tonight!
The rest of our first day in Hanoi consisted of lunch on small plastic stools in a squashy 4 story restaurant that had more stairs than chopsticks, and dinner at the famous ‘Little Hanoi’. In between we explored the ‘Old Quarter’ where every street is named after the product it sells. This makes it easy to find the shoe shop…they’re all in Shoe Street! The Water Puppet show was our last event for the day and while the fire-breathing dragons were impressive for some, others took the opportunity to relax their eyelids for a bit. We will sleep well tonight!
Imogen, Elise and Rose
