Our contingency plan became reality. The station we arrived in was not the station we were supposed to depart from so we couldn't make our connection. After checking out various options for accommodations, we decided to go to what we knew best, a Youth Hostel. We took the Metro and chatted with a wonderful 22 year old during the half hour trip. His English was very good and he was a lot of fun, so it made the time pass quickly.

The hostel is located in a beautiful neighbourhood, which we can't wait to explore in the morning. We spent the rest of the evening eating noodle soup from the 7-11, playing cards in the lounge with a Frieslander (from the Netherlands) and his UK friend, and talking to a very vocal New Yorker who'd been in China for 3 months and knew everything in the universe about China. Unfortunately, he spoke really fast, threw in every Chinese slang expression he knew, "accidentally" kept using words that only Chinese people would know and rarely finished any sentences, letting us "get" his meaning, which we didn't. He was highly entertaining to listen to but not very helpful for intel.

At midnight, the hostel people kicked us out of the lounge and, shocked that it had gotten so late, we went to bed, anxious to solidify plans for Vietnam.