Hanoi (and healthy!)

Hello all,

Well we went diving with Octopus diving, and they were absolutely fantastic. A beautiful boat, we had a dive master for the 3 of us (so many DMs and instructors, we were the largest group), and such a professional yet friendly service too. Even free coffee/hot chocolate and a chicken curry, can't beat that! It was fantastic to be back in the water again, and really enjoyed seeing a few things like the porcupine fish. Not as many fish as in some of our other dives, but great being underwater again.

Spent the afternoon asleep (shattered all the time at this point!) before waking up with a temperature of over 40 degrees celsius. Not good, incredibly sweaty before being ill! Haz and J were brilliant, bringing me back chocolate, water and coca cola (well I had to keep up my strength and not able to eat much!) Unfortunately I woke up with a temperature of 40 degrees again the following day, so we decided to brave the hospital. Didn't want to travel if I was contagious with swine flu.

So, the hospital was about 50 years behind. It was like a small medical centre, and I got ushered in to see the doctor. H very kindly came with me, and as soon as I was asked what was wrong promptly started crying, oops! He took my pulse, heart too fast so gave me an ECG. Not joking. I was strapped in by leather straps to my ankles, arms and funny poppers on my chest. Great. Then they gave me an ultra sound of my spleen, kidneys, liver etc. I now have a lovely photograph of my liver. Not that I was understanding what was really happening! The doctor saw me again... and looked in my throat. I had tonsilitis. Well, I don't think so as my throat wasn't sore, but very likely an ear infection. Brilliant! It wasn't swine flu/dysentry/malaria/any other tropical disease. And I could travel...

H and J were great, letting me stay on in Nha Trang for an extra day to recoup properly, and the magic tablets the doctor gave me were working well. They even brought me ice cream in bed, so kind of them! Luckily I wasn't actually feeling very ill in myself, just very drained, hot, cold and a very bad tummy. Managed to walk to the pagoda in Nha Trang the following day, we went to a great photography gallery, and chilled out on the beautiful beach, watching the locals come and cool down and play after a hot day working.

Night bus to Hoi An - sleeper bus again, yay! Hoi An a beautiful little town that we walked round in about 2 hours. Full of people making clothes of any kind, crafts, lanterns, - very crafty. A river flowing through contained huge models of a lotus flower, a dragon, and a strange cow with a flowerpot on its back. Life is strange here! We were staying in a beautiful hotel, very friendly, with a POOL! So lovely after being so hot for so long, and only costing us $4 a night. We also found a great little cafe, called Cafe 43, that did half pints of beer for 10p, beautiful food and a fraction of the price we normally pay. Great service, and we only wished we could stay the next day too!

Unfortunately ever onwards, we visited Hue for about 5 hours, and walked around the mainly demolished citadel. Not much to see in the city itself, we just meandered around the ruins and the newly renovated buildings (renovations usually 10 years old so not too impressive), before our night bus to Hanoi.

And we arrived today, eventually sorted out accommodation and avoided a little incident with some nasty hotel people in the city. We were with 2 guys at this point and they were really friendly and helpful. Been walking around the Old Quarter today, eating delicious Fanny ice cream, sorting out tickets and generally getting our bearings. Hanoi seems hectic, quite frenetic, and not quite as beautiful as we were hoping. Not actually that much to see, we only want to see the embalmed Ho Chi Minh's body before we leave here. Should be interesting!

So... off to Halong Bay tomorrow, and visiting Cat Ba island at the same time. For $45, it's a 3 day trip with a boat ride on the bay, staying overnight on the boat the first night, then the 2nd night we're staying on Cat Ba Island. So will be returning to Hanoi for a night on Wednesday night.

Hope all's well at home,
Loads of love from us all,
Al xxxxxxxxx