Hanoi

Once in Hanoi I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do. When I had planned this trip my only reason for coming to Hanoi was to visit with Anna. Not she's not here, I don't have much of a reason to be here. What made it even worse was that as I hadn't made it to Ninh Binh I could probably have gone back south and had a shorter trip into Laos, where I was going next. I found a hotel and spent most of the morning on a computer trying to get everything updated, I was productive. I continued on my productive streak and dropped my passport off at the Laotian embassy to get my visa. You can a visa on arrival but I didn't want to, if I already have my visa the border guys can't ask me for anymore money and I don't have to worry about it. I didn't do much for the rest of the night and it was an early night. I was up early, no surprise really since I had gone to bed early and went for a walk. I walked across the river, something I'd never done before. A couple of times on the way over I almost stopped and turned around, I don't like heights and the bridge didn't seem that safe to me. Also the traffic on the bridge was on the "wrong" side, people were driving on the right instead of the usual left, not sure why. There wasn't anything much on the other side but on my way back I did manage to get a few train photos, for Scott of course! After my exertions of the morning I stopped at Bia Hoi corner and had a few beers. However for how much longer it will be able to retain that title I don't know. When Anna and I were there in 2011 there were fresh beer stands on two of the four corners, now it's just one. There's a fresh juice cafe on the corner where we drank beer last time. That said it's still a great place just to sit and watch the world go by. I bought my bus ticket to Laos, I had to shop around as although Tet was still over a week away the travel offices had started to raise their prices already. The guidebook said that I was going to take one of the most difficult crossings but I wasn't concerned, I'd prepared as much as I could. I would have my visa, the bus would take me all the way to Lurang Prabang and I felt confident that I wouldn't be the only Westerner on it. There was nothing else I could do. I went to get my visa on Friday afternoon at 3pm, my bus pick up was at 5pm but I wasn't worried, I should have been. I got to the embassy early and so sat and waited in a nearby park. I then realised that I didn't have my dollars with me to pay for the visa. I don't like carrying a lot of cash so I'd left my visa money at my hotel with the intention of going back before I went to the embassy. I jumped on a Xe Om, without a helmet, in front of a couple of police officers and raced back to my hotel. Ran in, got the money and jumped on a different Xe Om, with a helmet this time and went straight back. It was fine, the whole performance had probably taken me only 30 minutes. I walked slowly back to the hotel and was on the computer when my pick up arrived, an hour early! Hopefully the bus would get me to Lurang Prabang early too.