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While in SaPa we hatched a plan. Realising that our return sleeper train was to arrive in Hanoi just before 5am and that we'd thus have a full day we decided to fill it with a trip to Halong Bay.
The train journey was OK except that VIP service seemed to consist of one extra beer on the table and I guess something was loose on the rolling stock because every 30 seconds or so (throughout the night) there was a sound like a drum being beaten very loudly.
Got to the hotel at about 5am as the train was early. Woke the night receptionist who, when able to focus, opened up a spa room for us to shower, change and snooze for an hour before breakfast. Life saver!
In retrospect, Halong in a day was a bit ambitious - at least 4hrs each way, some of the time crawling at 10kph in a queue of tourist vehicles. But when we got there we realised that we had an entire 48 seat junk to ourselves. The whole experience of 4 hours on the water was predictably mainstream touristy but we actually quite enjoyed it. Light dinner in the room before turning in at 9.
This morning (1 Feb) woke fully refreshed and went to the Ho Museum (mercifully not Gangsta) as the option of trooping past his embalmed body in the mausoleum was not open to us, it being a Friday. Then off to catch our flight to HCM. On the way passed the flower market where sales of apricot trees in blossom and tangerine & lemon trees in pots (to celebrate Chinese New Year) was gathering pace. Inevitably the road was then clogged with motor bikes transporting improbably large trees on their luggage racks.
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