So I finished off my birthday in grand style with the group and it really was one of the best birthdays yet (I don't mean to offend anyone who has ever helped celebrate it before!) when we got back from the boat trip we had an hour or so to chill (open presents and eat..) Flo won the prize for the most inventive prize ever- drinking straws(you never know when they'll come in handy here) and anti acne teen wipes (she's to kind) because it was my last teen bday! Gunnar on the other hand was highly unimpressed by the quality of the presents but we reassured him that it was indeed the norm! That evening we headed for Italian (!!!) despite the fact we're on Vietnam because lots of places were shut due to new year/too expensive on our budgets and everyone decided to dress up in honour of my birthday!! It was so strange to see people actually looking nice with make up and dresses/blazers on! Dinner was delicious and afterwards they surprised me with a huge cake with lots of cream and chocolate (Mmmm) with a sparkler as well as some cards and Hanne and Lasse even got me a Vietnamese hat keyring! I was then given several rousing renditions of happy birthday in many languages. English, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, polish and Danish among them. Personally I liked the Norwegian one best because it was accompanied with dancing!!! We hit up some karaoke after dinner with plenty if cheesy old school tunes much to mine and flo's delight!! Overall it was a pretty splendid and memorable birthday and I'm sorry I've detailed it in so much depth!! This morning we left halong bay and headed back to Hanoi. When we finally arrived we went for a wander around town stopping for some lunch at a local street food restaurant which served yummy food although we could only point at what looked good due to a lack of English on their part (or Vietnamese on ours...) I think Hanoi is awesome, the traffic is as crazy as Ho Chi Minh but the streets are more narrow, we've developed the brilliant technique of just walking across the road and not looking too much- it goes against anything I was ever taught but hey ho! The streets are just so exciting and bustling with fruits, veg, fish, jewellery, clothing etc being sold everywhere you look. We decide Togo to the water puppet show in the afternoon to experience some Vietnamese culture- my god was it the oddest thing we've ever seen. I can't even explain it except that we were on the back row, I forget my glasses so had to wear my sunglasses (I'm cool like that) and we really couldn't do anything but snicker. The puppets kept erupting from the water and a screen behind, there were girls with parasols, dragons, men with pipes all telling the story of the Vietnamese culture. On the plus side, the music was good and it was a different and memorable experience! We met up with jenny (crawford) who gave us a tonne of tips about Thailand and Laos (woo) and it was so nice to catch up with someone from home... This evening we headed for dinner and went to a rooftop cafe for a view of the crazy traffic of Hanoi, we've got a few more days left in Hanoi so we should see all the sights including Ho Chi Minhs mausoleum much to flo's excitement!!!!
Tess and Flo xx