Its friday night, nannas 97th birthday!!! unfortunately i didn't manage to get her on the phone. Today was a bitsty day, had a looong sleep in, then went and sorted out bookings for ha long bay and sa pa. unfortunately we couldn't get train tickets to sa pa for tomorrow (it's an overnight train) so we ended up booking for tonight. Lucky for us the hotel has been really accommodating (pardon the pun!) and letting us swap nights for later. Found an awesome place for brunch (we slept in and missed our breakfast) which was a cafe around the corner from our hotel. had a beautiful restaurant area out the back tucked away, nice and quiet- something you just don't get in hanoi!!! We then wandered around doing more sight seeing, went to the old jail, markets which were 3 stories high and just chaos to say the least! Then had a beer on the side of the road on a plastic stool as u do in Hanoi. Met a lovely New Zealand couple who had just flown in that day, they also were having deliberations over which tour company to book with! Had a nice dinner again (see pic of Chris- yummy rice paper rolls!) and now on the overnight train to sa pa. a very old train, we are sharing a carriage (4 beds) with a friendly couple from Malaysia. Looking forward to some hiking in the mountains in sa pa tomorrow and a home stay in a local village house! No wifi for now so likely this will be uploaded later.