We arrived back in to Hanoi station at 5am on Saturday morning and due
to yet more excellent map reading skills we ended up having a nice
half hour jaunt in a big loop checking out the sights (ie. the odd
local up already having pho for breakfast sat on a small stool on the
pavement!) around the train station before we eventually got ourselves
on the right route and back to the Drift hostel. There we had to read
the riot act to the night watchman on reception to let us check in so
that we could go straight back to bed. Just the latest in a long line
of annoying things about the useless hostel!

After a quality second sleep of the morning we got ourselves out of
bed and spent the rest of the day doing stuff that pleases us greatly
(maybe me more so than Hutch) - admin!! We even finally arranged our
flight back home and the countdown is now on, with very mixed
feelings, to the 5th May!!

In the evening we went to a quality restaurant that was heaving with
locals with Louis, a guy from our dorm, and then Hutch and I caught a
film at the cinema to make us feel a bit at home.

On Sunday we finally got ourselves in to town and started to see what
there is in Hanoi. We had a very pleasant morning walking through the
hustle of the old town and on to the Temple of Literature, where the
highlight was undoubtedly as we were leaving when Hutch basically
achieved celebrity status! One local girl was clearly trying to pluck
up the courage to ask for a photo with Hutch, and once I encouraged
eye contact she came rushing over and couldn't get her camera out
quick enough! After that, the floodgates seemed to open and other
locals around also wanted a piece of the action!

After lunch we checked out Ho Chi Minh's vestage within the
Presidential Palace area and this was also a really nice thing to
see. We just had a really good day wandering around the city, which
is much nicer when not blanketed in thick fog and rain, even if you do
have to say 'no' every 5 minutes to the "hello moto" chancers!

We walked back through the old town, now much better at crossing the
roads despite the millions (literally) of motorbikes, and saw a couple
more sights before all the days walking started taking it's toll and
so we headed back to the hostel and got ready for our sleeper bus down
south.