This was the lovely view of the Old Quarter from our hotel where we woke up to the sounds of Vietnam. We checked out of our hotel and walked to Hanoi Backpackers Hostel to book beds - it was very much a backpackers haven, loads of young travellers, amazing friendly atmosphere. We were in a dorm room called Swingers and found two canadian girls in there who very very helpfully gave me the rest of their malaria tablets because they were nearing the end of their trip and because one of them got a really bad reaction to them ("they made me feel really nauseous, like the same kind of feeling when you forget to take birth control and then take like 3 in a row - have you ever done that?" "err, no..") and the other one thought she'd stop taking them if her friend did.. not too sensible seeing as you're meant to take them for 4 weeks after you come out of a malarial zone.. (basically I was a little bit thick and forgot to get some pills in my 6 days back home, so this was such an effort saver).

We went exploring for the day and walked to Lenin Park (no surprises, my idea!) - we saw a group of Vietnamese guys playing football and Tom and Shaps were looking on longingly going ohh I really feel like playing, so I went up to them and asked if my two friends could join them. Then I had to watch them play football for 2o minutes. We sat and drank coconut water by Bay Mau lake before heading back the the hostel for a barbeque and drinks on the roof where we met some lovely Irish girls.