We were woken at 5am with a bang! The bus driver obviously wanted us off asap which was a little disorienting but all part and parcel of the night bus experience! The drop off wasn't too far from our hostel so we decided to walk. The Ga Hostel seemed nice enough and well off the Main Street which was good. They let us have our beds early but at an early check in price of $2 each. We didn't care at that point, we just needed sleep!

After 4 hours of decent sleep, we headed out to explore a little of Hanoi. We were staying in the old quarter which seemed actually pretty nice. The streets were full of people eating on street corners and hundreds of shops selling cheap goods. It became apparent that each main street focused on selling one type of product, for example: the coffee street, the shoes street, the coats street etc. This was great for us as we didn't need to go far to find exactly what you wanted and also it was so much easier to barter. We ended up buying so much stuff again!

We had lunch over looking the Turtle Lake in a coffee shop on the 6th floor of one of the main buildings. The sun was shining so it was great to sit outside and watch the city havoc below! It was a fab first day exploring and that evening we sat on one of the street corners with the locals and had street food. We also booked our trips, two nights in Sapa and two nights in Halong bay through a tourist company we researched online called Lilys Travel! We had heard some horror stories from people who had been there before where their boats for Halong bay were falling apart and there were rats onboard so we wanted to make sure we booked through a decent company. Fingers crossed we won't be disappointed!

The next morning, I did not feel well at all! We weren't sure wether it was food poisoning or not but my stomach was in so much pain and I couldn't stop vomiting. Needless to say I couldn't even leave the hostel. They kindly let me stay in the bed all day and rest as I felt dizzy every time I stood up. Matt wanted to stay with me but I was pretty miserable so told him to carry on without me for the day. I wanted to get it out of my system as we had a night bus that night to Sapa and a 15km hike the next day that we had already paid for.

At 8pm that evening, I forced myself to shower and pack a small bag for Sapa. We headed to Lilys Travel for our bus pick up. I was still vomiting but was feeling slightly better than this morning. I was dreading the night bus though! Not the sort of place you want to be when you're feeling unwell! I hoped I would just sleep throughout the whole thing as I just felt exhausted! I had everything crossed it went smoothly! Sapa, here we come!