The Last Vietnamese Coffee

While walking back into the Old Quarter of Hanoi after our train ride back from Sapa, we watched how the locals get their daily exercise... its really quite hilarious... stationed all around Hanoi lake are men and women doing what looks like strange and pointless arm flicks, and hip twirls, and half-hearted lunges..either alone, or in groups (accompanied by a mini hi-fi on the bench nearby playing an exercise tape with instructions). Can't imagine it does anything more than get the blood flowing...or cause an injury...

We stopped for our last vietnamese coffee with all the locals going about their morning routine...in a minute pizza-sliced shaped room, where you sit on small pre-school-sized stools, watch the frenetic street, and can get served newspapers, breakfast, or have your shoes shined, all while having coffee, from the sellers who walk or cycle past...it was lovely! Vietnamese coffee is delisciously too sweet, made from coffee and condensed milk...and gives a real kick.

After spending the day chilling at the lake, we nervously boarded the bus at 7 pm to Vientiane in Laos...apparently well known as The Death Bus by travellers as it takes a gruelling 24 hours to get there, including a long wait at the Laos border....mmmm what fun. Our anxiety only grew when we noticed all the people (and all their luggage) that were being slowly squeezed onto the bus...including a large long box of insulation pipes...this continued until every last seat was filled, and every last inch of aisle was fully utilised as luggage storage space. The bus finally left at 8:30 pm. Quite amazingly it went much smoother than expected...and we arrived at the Laos border at 5, had to wait 2 hours for it to open, and then arrived in Vientiane at 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon in record time!