The long journey towards Heaven. - Day 22, May 10

An early rise for the 8am pick was totally unnecessary because the bus didn't arrive until 9! Got to the ferry and then it was the slow boat back to Ha Long.  The scenery made up for some of the angst!

 Somehow we became part of the tour group again and all four of us agree, Do Not Do The Tour!!! It took us 3 hours in Ha Long to get the bus to town, wait till others had had lunch, load up the mini van, drive ten minutes down the road, BREAK DOWN, get a new (new OLD) mini van, and get on the road to Ha Noi. However after a total of 10 hours we arrived in Ha Noi and the tour guide got us dropped off about 50 metres from our accommodation, the Ha Noi Guesthouse, 85 Ma May St located fairly central in the Old Quarter.

After the Welcome drink, the ice cold face towel and the best service yet.  Staff member Huyen even asked where we are going next and checked the trains to Danag on Monday and will have the tickets delivered for no extra charge..... Wow! 

We were taken to our rooms on the 6th floor IN A LIFT!! We are all looking sideways at each other saying.... Is this real??? Yes it is, for the bargain price of NZ$35 per room per night we are in HEAVEN!!

The staff are truly amazing, Huyen recommended the New Day restaurant for tea and walking down the street people were smiling and saying hello.

HELLO Vietnam, this is the Vietnam we have been looking forward to, YAY!

Had a wonderful dinner, the boys had a 4 course set menu, a couple of beers each, and the girls had vege spring rolls, eggplant clay pot, egg fried rice, braised green vegetables and a sprite each total cost Vietnamese Dong 218,000 approx NZ$13.

There's even a laundry service which was very welcome, we'll have clean clothes tomorrow evening.

We finished the day feeling far more positive towards our Vietnam portion of the adventure!