* due to slight lapse in memory, I have to rewrite some of this.*
Today was supposed to be exciting, cos we were moving from HCMC to Hanoi. Unfortunately, for some reason it was the exact opposite. My friend V fell sick. It was raining and the flight was horrible! It was not even a budget airlines yet it was bad. The flight had a stench which jus made all of us nauseous and he seats were rickety and uncomfortable. We were kicking ourselves for not taking Vietnam Airlines. V was hurling non stop. To make things worse, the lady in front of us had removed the diapers off her baby and when the baby needed to pee, she jus held him up on the passageway!! She din even bother to get off her seat. Well, all this made V's condition v bad.
Post flight was not any better. The bus we took was so bumpy that V couldnt take it anymore. Moreover, we had to change buses midway and wait for the next one. We decided it was enuf and jus took a cab to Hang Bac (the backpacker area in Hanoi and definitely the place to stay in). We went straight to Tamarind Cafe. We had already planned that if possible, we would take the train out that very night to go to Sapa.
Tamarind Cafe..probably the best hang out place I have been to. Just being there made everyone feel so much better, esp V. P went to enquire about train tickets and also for our trip to HaLong while me n V's sis went to nearby travel agents to find out if they have anything available. Well we couldnt get what we wanted, but we got what seemed to us as much better deals if we swapped our days little. Hey who cares!
So the plans changed. We were gonna be in Hanoi for the night and the next day. Following which we would leave for Ha Long, come back and then leave for Sapa. We booked into a nearby hotel, showered and unpacked, then headed out for some shopping and dinner. Everyone's mood seemed to have improved now.
Hanoi in general seemed more expensive than HCMC. Shop keepers seemed more difficult to bargain with. I remember we headed out to a showroom to look for nice audais. We all fell in love with the same audai (its the traditional Vietnamese dress...v similar to Salwar Kameez...except it is a lot more figure hugging). So we all placed order for the same audai! [Its bronze and golden :) and hanging in my closet still.] End of the day we headed to a small restaurant few streets away from our hotel for dinner.
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