Back to Hanoi, goodbyes

It is pouring rain and everything is gray and misty. All the colours of the world have vanished overnight.

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain…

We return to the Halong Bay harbour around nine in the morning and drive back to Hanoi. It is the last day of the tour and we are all tired and happy. It has been a long way from Bangkok to Hanoi, but how much I have seen and learned…

There’s nothing like a bit of rowing in the rain

I spend most of my afternoon back in Hanoi in the hotel room. First I have a long bath and then a long nap, whilst my roommate runs to a travel agency and changes her return ticket to Melbourne to an earlier flight. When I get out of the bath, she informs me that she will fly back to Oz in few hours time. She stuffs her clothes to the bags and heads off. I stand out and wave to her and her cab vanishes in the rain. She had pre-booked and paid the hotel room for the following night as well, but since she has decided to go home early, I get to stay in the hotel for free instead.

Now I have a room for myself for the first time in few weeks! It is such a luxury to be able to spread my things around, watch Discovery Channel and chill. The hotel wi-fi connection is crap, and the Internet rarely works, but during this trip there has not been a thing such as a working wi-fi. If the internet works, the jpgs appear bit by bit like back in 1999 J. My roommate used to make jokes of me and my nerdy love for computers, but I was able to help her out with all technical problems with her camera, Ipod etc. I also taught her loads of new tricks. We all have our hobbies.

We attend the final goodbye dinner and most people go for drinks afterwards. I accompany a fellow tour member to her last night shopping spree. She is leaving back to the US early tomorrow and has to get rid of all the remaining dong. Dong is a currency of Vietnam, but outside the borders it is not valid. At least not yet. I hear bizarre stories of people not getting their Australian dollars changed to dong at the moment, because Australian dollar is too strong. The same problem goes with changing dong to US dollars. I hear that the only way I will get US dollars is to go to the bank and get the money out from my ATM card over the counter. I hope it will work, I will be out of money in few days time. It sounds like the Vietnamese currency business is a bit of a jungle.

We walk back to the hotel in the darkness and rain. Hanoi is gorgeous at night and one gets everywhere by foot. The streets are dark, the rain has wiped away the smoke and the pollution and the air smells great.