Day 2 - Hanoice

Had a good lay in which helped with the hangover. It was raining anyway so I chilled until early afternoon. I realised someone had stolen my towel. I told reception and they said I should have kept it in my bed or locker, even when it’s wet, yeah sure. I refused to pay and she gave me another one. Mark wins.

I headed out at 3ish to another vegan cafe and had a veggie burger, It was a bit weird and stodgy but I was starving so it did the job. The passion fruit juice was weird too, full of seeds, so they got stuck in the straw and you had to blowpipe the shit out of that bad boy. I sat on the balcony to watch the world go by but it turns out that’s what flies like to do too so I spent half the time swatting away flies who appeared to like stodgy food. I must have spent two hours using their wifi and swatting away flies before I gave up on the idea that the rain would stop and headed back out into the crazy world of Hanoi. I walked around the lake Hoàn Kiếm Lake which is quite pretty especially when they turn the lights on at the bridge and the temple at 7pm. I then decided it was about time I bought an umbrella, haggled that price down a bit, then walked around the lake for a second time. It’s the best place to walk because you don’t have to cross any roads so I put some music on and zoned out for a nice stroll in the pouring rain.

I went back to the hostel to figure out where to get my evening meal, the kids (early 20s at a guess) were all in the room getting ready to go out on a mad one . I settled on a place called Chopsticks for food where I had a veggie bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwich thingy) When I returned to the hostel there was only one other person in the bar so I had a beer and ended up finishing it as the staff were turning all the lights off and going home. It certainly wasn’t as lively in there as the night before! I think everyone had gone off to different places but I’d missed the time when people were leaving otherwise I could have tagged along with someone.

I went up to my room and shortly afterwards as I was about to brush my teeth two of the kids came back. The girl ran straight into the toilet and locked the door. Her male friend explained that she’d possibly been spiked so I might want to go brush my teeth somewhere else. I decided to wait (mistake) Two hours of puking and crying later and it finally went silent. Turns out she’d gone to hospital but the important thing was that I could now brush my teeth. Happy days.

(For the record I don’t think she died because I’m sure I’d have heard about it the next day)