Night Bus to Hanoi

We arrived off the night Bus in Hanoi at 4:45am... We walked over to our hotel and of course couldn't check in so we walked to the local square for some Laughing yoga waiting for places to open for breakfast. The "yoga" started at 6am and even at the time the city was bustling and alive. It really reminded me of Vancouver, with all the people out exercising so early, the rain, and the dynamic groups of people. I didn't actually participate in the yoga because my knees are just messed, but I watched and laughed at our group and walked around the park instead. Again there's a lot of French inspired architecture, and I noticed immediately how dirty the city is once you're off the main drag.

When yoga was over it was raining in full force and we walked over to a great little place for breakfast, the name of which I can't recall but is something like Jo Mo. I had a croissant with eggs, cheese, and bacon that was heavenly. No complaints there! Afterwards we went back to the hotel and most people had rooms ready. Mine wasn't so I decided to walk around the city instead of sitting in the lobby with the rest of the people waiting for rooms. Time to explore!

I walked to the old quarter, and along the ceramic mosaic wall that totals 6.5km. I didn't do the full length of the wall but enough to get an idea of what it is. Pretty cool! The mosaic was pretty cool and covered different events in history. The most interesting thing I found was walking through the parts of the town dominated by locals. Without tourists and just observing. It reminded me a bit of the outskirts of Kathmandu with people just living their lives. The buildings are old and run down and just interesting to look at. Definitely my favourite thing to do in a city just walk around and observe!

When I got back to the hotel our room was ready 2 minutes later! Good timing ;) so I read my book for a bit and had a great nap. I didn't sleep much on the night Bus so I was pretty happy about the nap. I then had a good long chat with a friend from home before meeting up with the group for dinner. I had a fantastic shrimp clay pot, one of the best meals I've had yet! After dinner we went back to the hotel and watched a movie as a small group in one of the girls rooms before heading to bed at the reasonable hour of 10:30Read more