Early Morning Aerobics.

We are on a happy bus to Ha Long Bay at the moment. I am very happy 
because I am listening to the funky tunes of Panic at the Disco. Even 
Dec likes this song.

We a have just left Hanoi, but we are going there again tomorrow. I 
think we have like two more nights there. I'm not really sure. It's 
probs good that we have more time there, because yesterday we really 
didn't do much. It was the fault of another sodding sleeper train.

We got off the sleeper train at about four o'clock ish. None of us had 
slept very well that night though, because in the middle of the night 
Nat woke up and started screaming at us,  "Guys, get up! Shit, guys, 
we're here! Shit, get up, get up!". We were not there at all. It was 
only bloody midnight, but she had made us all jump so much that we had 
all started getting ready to leave. I had even packed my sleeping bag 
away by the time Mirelle had told us that the time was, in fact, a 
quarter past twelve. Stupid Hopka. I couldn't get back to sleep after 
that because they had turned the air con off and I was sweating like a 
person who sweats a lot.

So because of Nat's late night outburst, and the four o'clock start, 
we were all pretty gormed out when we arrived at our hotel. We weren't 
allowed to check in straight away, so Huy took us on an early morning 
stroll around the city. There is a lake in Hanoi, so we walked around 
that. It was brill. There was like a bajillion people exercising by he 
lake. Becky and I joined in with an aerobics class. The instructor was 
a very scary looking Vietnames lady who was dressed in the craziest 
eighties attire. She pointed to us and made us move to the front. I 
guess we weren't thrusting correctly, and she wanted to show us 
properly. We ran away when she wasn't looking.

I love the exercise regime of the Vietnamese.  I like it so much, in fact,
that I am considering setting up an early morning aerobics class in Belper.
Just a group of cool kids, exercising in the early morning in the nice outdoors.
We could do it at the river gardens, perhaps.  "Daisy's Fitness Freaks" I would
call it.  Yeah, YEAH!!

We went for some breakyfast after all that exertion. Becky had a 
pancake that acually tasted of vom. Gross.

After breakfast, Huy invited us to go to his house. We accepted his 
invitation and hopped on a public bus. I fell asleep. Oops. Luckiy, 
Huy woke me up when we had to get off.

Huy lives in a place about forty minutes outside of Hanoi, and it is 
where a lot of wooden furniture is made. Literally every house and 
building makes this jazzy furniture. The furniture is very ornate. 
Properly carved and stuff. The people have to be really good at it. 
Huy's family are also in the furniture business and his house was full 
of it.

We had some green tea when we got there, and then he showed us his 
house. Then it was way random, because he was all like,"Ok guys, have 
a nap, I'm gong to go and help my mother". So he just left us to have 
a nap in his bedroom and his brother's bedroom. We thought t was odd,
and we weren't that comfortable sleeping in random people's beds,
but we were very tired so we napped.

A few hours later he woke us up for lunch. It was only like ten 
o'clock though. His mum had cooked us up a right feast. There was a 
ton of food. We tried to eat a lot to be polite but we were way full 
from the sickie pancakes. Huy gave us red wine to drink. At ten 
o'clock. Brill.

We journeyed back to Hanoi after lunch, and as soon as we got to the 
hotel we fell asleep. I woke up about four hours later, and it was 
time to get ready for dinner.

We went out to a nice little restaurant for dinner. I had sweet and 
sour pork and it was delicious. Absolutely delicious. Griff had fried 
fish with cashew nuts. I tried some and it was mega tasty. I loved it. 
I am turning into a right old fish lover. Yey.

We went out for drinks to a place called Beer Corner. It was like 4000 
dong for a beer, which is like 15 pence or something. Brill. It was a 
really random place though, it was just like a load of plastic chairs 
and stools on the pavement. Some of the chairs spilled out onto the 
road, but no one got run over.  Then all of a sudden the owners came 
out and started yelling at us to stand up and they started putting all 
the chairs away. They were ever so dramatic about it. It was quite 
spectacular. We didn't really know why they were doing it, until we 
heard some one say that the police were coming. Major lols. They are 
not allowed chairs on he street because the police tell them off and 
take them away. Bimes for them.  Luckily, the police were a no show this
time.  False alarm.  Phew.

When they had run out of the draught beer we took the advice of a 
strange man on a moped and had a drink at "Top Pub". I like it because 
it was kind of like Topshop. There was a bit of a problem when we 
realised that it was on the fourth floor, and there was no lift, but 
the leaflet we were given promised us brilliant views, so we soldiered 
on. The views were shit. But they gave us free beer so it was ok.

They had this special offer thing at the Top Pub, where if you stood 
on one foot for a minute you got a free beer, and if you stood on one 
leg for two minutes you got a free vodka mixer. Yey. I got a free 
vodka and coke. Becky got a free vodka mixer as well, but they didn't 
have lemonade and as she is allergic to caffeine, she couldn't have 
redbull or coke. So instead, she made a deal with the bar man that if 
she stood on one foot for ten minutes then he would give her a free 
cocktail. She did it as well. Good times. She does yoga.

We finished up our freebie drinks and went home a little bit tipsy.