Back to Hanoi ... and heading HOME! - April 27th, 2006

We reached Hanoi at about 5:30am this morning with an extra bag of "stuff" (the blankets and things that we bought in Sapa!) and since we couldn't check in we dropped off our bags at our hotel (waking up the long-suffering night receptionist who sleeps on a mat in the foyer!) and went for another walk around the lake. 

We rang Malaysian Airlines to confirm our ticket and the lady there said that the times of our connecting flight from KL to Perth had changed - so instead of leaving on Thursday - we now have to leave tomorrow at 2.40pm instead and the airline is putting us up overnight in KL. The boys are hoping that it's at a hotel in the centre of town because they love the shops there! So that's rushed things at this end a bit and we'll miss out on some of the more touristy things we'd planned for tomorrow. But we have walked the streets of the Old Quarter and can truly say that we have experienced Hanoi. So no regrets. 

We'd planned to go to the circus (russian trained so should be good we figured) this evening but found out that it's only run Wed - Sat. So were disappointed and instead dragged ourselves out to tea to a hamburger place that we'd promised the boys we'd go to before leaving VN (I know.... hamburgers in Vietnam - shame on us!). We sat on the balcony which overlooked the lake and much to our surprise the circus started performing their acts (just the aerial, acrobatics, magic and a variety of balancing and juggling acts - nothing exciting like the animal acts!) on a stage set up in front of us. BONUS!!! 

You see there's this huge conference on (People's Committee or some such - forget the name) and the flag (both VN and the hammer and sickle) are flying high off every building and all along the streets alongside enormous communist banners which line every main street. So there have been regular performances on these temporary stages set up at every cross roads around the lake (last week we watched choirs singing). So instead of going to the circus the circus came to us! 

It's with a sad heart we leave VN but we feel that we'd like to visit again. We've met the most amazing people and would like to visit again if possible.  

So... talk to you all when we're back home..... which probably means silence from Shamara unless you take the time to write to me.... sigh....