Monday 18 July 2011

Hello All!

Me and Bizzle are trying to upload some photos onto the blog today as I realised I brought a card reader with me! This photo is from the horrible second day, just look how steep it was! We the the water droplets on my lense just add to the authenticity of this place!

Today we had planned to go to the Musuem but after trying to confirm with the hotel attendant on where exactly it was, she told us that it's closed o Mondays and Fridays, so perhaps we will try again tomorrow! Instead she told us of a shopping plaza on the other side of the Lake, and so feeling brave we ventured out! After trying to navigate our way through the streets and across the roads (I have never missed English zebra crossings and traffic lights so much!) we managed to find the Lake and walk a little way round. We had hoped for an ice cream, how after reading the english translation of one flavour as 'Taro' we decided to wait until later and find a branded ice cream shop! We were also on a mission to find a post office (perhaps the one post office) in Hanoi, buy some postcards and some stamps. We found the post office coming to the conclusion that VNPT stood for post office here, and saw the one yellow post box outside so to post them we may have to venture out again. Although we couldn't exactly find 'the shopping plaza' we were in a more uptown district with air conditioned shops, selling more pricey stuff.. we also saw an Accessorise here, which is one of the first chain shops we've seen around. A lady nearby was carrying an IKEA bag and so maybe there might be a local one of them here too. We carried on round the lake, stopping for ice cream, I had the vietnamese version of a strawberry cornetto -definitely the safe option! Bizzle looked at some of the pots and came across a 'Rice Flake' ice cream pot.... deciding to stay away she too chose a berry sort of flavour ice cream (neither tasted much like strawberry, just a sweet berry general flavour) we hope that the rice ice cream wasn't a missed opportunity!
No news from the group walking at the moment, hopefully meaning nothing to report. Last time we spoke they were all happy relaxing at another homestay playing cards. We'll email Mark from True Adventure and try and get a message via the sat phone from them just to check in! They've had a couple of long days so we think they'll be pretty tired. When we join them on thursday we're hoping to take them some sort of treat from Hanoi, like some cakes of chocolate to eat that eveneing before we begin our project.
Will try and add some more photos of the Homestays and the Lake!
Much love, Alice and Bizzle xxxxx

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 18, 2011

    Hi, Hope you are all well :)
    It's sounds really tough but you will get through it together! Hope the shoulder is feeling better soon Alice and can't wait to here from everyone again. Good Luck with the project on Thursday
    Lots of Love Chelsey xxxxxxxxxx

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  2. It's lovely to see the photos, looks amazing, if somewhat muddy! The boots look like the ones Ben was wearing yesterday after spending the day as car park attendant at the Polo! Yep, that's right we too have had monsoon downpours. You all still all looking perky and adventurous, well done to you all for completing this so far, the tracker is interesting it looks like you're zig zagging through the jungle, no direct route I suppose? Love and hugs to you all, an amazing experience and what a challenge, keep going guys, you know you can do it :) xxxxxx

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  3. Brilliant to see some photos Alice, thanks! Enjoying reading about your adventures in Hanoi and looking forward to more before you head off to project in a few days. All following your progress back at college :)

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