The beautiful Chelsea had an evil deed put upon her in the night, for some reason her Vietnamese baguette had disagreed with her and she fell victim to a healthy batch of food poisoning. When I have found myself in similar disgruntling situations I prefer to be left to my own devices, so with that in mind I brought her rehydration tablets and a big bottle of water, rubbed her back until she fell asleep then went downstairs.

I went for a swift walk around the Hoan Kiem Lake and intended to visit some of Hanoi's various tourist attractions, but feeling guilty I returned back to our hostel after half an hour - feeling guilty that Chelsea may wake up and I wouldn't be there. There were some quirky things to see on my short walk however, couples in their wedding attire where all over the place having wedding pictures taken by professional photographers. I don't believe such a thing happens in Britain, the sanctity of an expensive wedding dress doesn't permit it to be traipsed around unclean city streets. There was also a man fishing from the side of the lake who happened to catch a fish as I was walking past. The crowd that had gathered to watch his catch was quickly made to disperse however by his friend saying that we would attract the attention of the police - evidently fishing in the lake is illegal.

The hostel was relatively busy when I returned and I spent much of my time with a young Swedish couple and helped them to plan their journey down through Vietnam.

In between bursts of checking on Chelsea, who was slowly getting better, I started playing cards with the hostel owners. They were both young and spoken reasonably good English and they gave a comprehensive explanation of the rules to Tien Len (Thirteen). It was a game that was easy to grasp and we played for slaps as no one was willing to gamble. Slaps consists of the loser holding out their forearm and the winner, using his index and middle finger, slaps them a maximum of three times, depending on what cards they still had when they lost. I was very surprised that they didn't hold back at all when slapping me and I heartily returned the about whenever I won. It was great fun and gave me a chance to learn some Vietnamese words and drink free green tea.

Thankfully, because my arm was red raw, Chelsea felt well enough to get some fresh air around town and we tentatively went out to find a spot for an iced coffee before our night bus to Sapa.