We arrived in Hanoi at the ungodly hour of 4.20am and had to find ways to pass the time until somewhere opened for breakfast (at about 6am in the end). Saw lots of people out exercising, doing individual and group tai chi in the semi-darkness, which was rather surreal.
Tom & Jules were still with us, and after quick showers in our hostel, they took us on a little exploration of Hanoi. The most striking part was walking through the markets where they were selling all kinds of very fresh animals for eating. We saw bags of frogs very much still jumping and sliding over each other. We saw buckets of worms and eels in slithering masses. Then we saw a fish being cut up and skinned whilst still flapping and moving its mouth. Needless to say we all chose a “safe” vegetarian lunch.
Unfortunately the lunch may not have been so “safe” after all – as Lizzy spent the rest of the day emitting the previous few days’ food and I had to have dinner on my own…
