After Halong bay we had a 4hr drive back to Hanoi city. The drive took forever and after hitting Hanoi traffic it took a lot longer than the expected 4hr. We finally arrived at our hotel and were so happy to see where we were staying. The hotel was amazing with a gym, sauna, jacuzzi and buffet breakfast on the 11th floor overlooking the city. When you travel around so much everything merges into one so we didn’t actually remember what we had booked.
Visiting Hanoi
We had 2 days in Hanoi and visited the lake, the prison and walked along the train track that runs straight through a street of houses. It is such a unique place and it was an amazing experience to see the people going about their normal lives, then quickly leaving the street, collecting their children and other belongings inside, safe from the passing train. We stayed outside to witness the train and we were stood, pressed up against the wall of someone’s house as the train flew past, less than a metre from our face. It was definitely adrenaline rush.
There are only supposed to be 2 trains that pass throughout the entire day, but we managed to see 2 in an hour! Don’t ask me how!
We both really enjoyed Hanoi, much more than we had expected. It was very poluted so I did struggle to breathe a few times with my asthma. A lot of the locals walk round with masks on it’s that bad.
Later that evening we chilled in the lobby of our hotel waiting for our 1.00am flight to the PHILIPPINES.
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