Day 63 of The Big Adventure.
Our ‘don’t miss breakfast’ alarm went off and we headed downstairs in our pyjamas. Freya had the standard fried eggs and a baguette doused in soy sauce; Parker and I had delicious omelettes and Matt had beef noodles (he wasn’t really a breakfast foods kind of guy). 

We were stuffed by the end of it and Freya decided she needed more sleep and so headed back up to bed. 

Matt, Parker and I headed out to run some errands: we had to post a key we’d accidentally stoked from a previous hostel, we had to buy Freya a Vietnamese stamp for her dad, Matt had to book his Sapa tour and we wanted to try and see the third coo structure built by Eiffel – a suspension bridge. 
We headed to the Post Office first, which was apparently one of the cities sites so we were killing two birds with one stone. I had heard there was an old abandoned railway running through Hanoi that you could walk on, so we made a slight detour and went via this. It was amazing how close the houses were built to the tracks and people were going about their daily lives as if they weren’t even there. Just before we were about to turn off, a loud whistle was blown and a train came into view! We hadn’t realised it was still in use! 

After it passed we carried on to the Post Office and when we arrived we weren’t exactly bowled over. If was, infact, just like most other buildings. Distinctly underwhelmed, we posted the key and bought a stamp and paid what we owed. The lady gave me two 500 dong notes, which we had been told was very lucky and when she saw how excited I was to get them, she gave Parker two too. For free. What a nice lady. 

This did, however, make us wonder how rare and/lucky it actually was. 

I had noticed when I woke up that my eye was unusually juicy and upon closer inspection it was starting to turn rather red. Hello eye infection. 

We stopped in a pharmacy where no one spoke English so I thrust my eye at them, as best I could, and they found me some eye drops. 

We continued on to find the office where Matt wanted to book his Sapa tour and from there we went to try and find the infamous suspension bridge. We could see where it was. But getting there was an entirely different thing. 

We ended walking underneath what we thought was the correct bridge, but on closer inspection, it was infact the next bridge along. 
So we walked along the back streets where locals were cooking and gambling and had a look in what appeared to be their allotments. 

It was all very interesting. And when we got there, the bridge itself was, again, distinctly underwhelming. 

But at least now we’d seen it so we headed home to see if Freya was awake. 

Indeed she was and she was raring to go. I, on the other hand, was fading a little and eye was beginning to hurt. So off Parker and Freya went to book our tour to Halong Bay and I stayed in and had a nap. Matt decided he would stay too and we ended up having a rather long conversation and no nap was had. 

The girls came back beaming; they’d found us an amazing deal and we would get to spend a night on Cat Ba island too!

We all decided to head out for some food and I found a highly recommended ‘bahn mi’ (sandwhich) stand a few streets away. 

Parker and I shared a honey chicken one, Freya had a pork one and Matt had two! 

We decided to walk to the Botanic gardens which were on the other side of town and took about half an hour to walk to. 

It was nice just to take in the city and see the locals going about their daily business. 

When we got to the park we saw lots of people exercising: people running, lots of Tai Chi, yoga and we even saw a group salsa class! 

There were various cages scattered throughout the gardens – one had a large peacock inside and another had a whole family of monkeys. 

We decided to head home to shower before going out for some dinner. 

Showered and ready, we headed out and ended up getting rather lost. 

It was 10pm before we found somewhere and we were all RAV. 

Parker and Matt had cravings for club sandwhiches so they had them. I had THE most delicious pesto pasta and Freya had some spiced chicken with rice. 

After dinner we headed over to Dunkin Donuts, which, it turns out, aren’t nearly as delicious as Krispy Kremes. What a disappointment. 

Then we headed home, via a delicious ice cream shop – l’amour. 

The girls banned themselves from ice cream because they’d just had a donut but Matt and I got one anyway. 

We all got an early night because Matt was leaving for Sapa at some ungodly hour and we had to be up at 7am to go to Halong Bay.