Lucas was late to wake up after his previous late night but we had a peaceful poolside morning lined up. By 10 we were resuming the Lucas throwing competition. John, Marc and Raquel had set off early to see the UNESCO sites in town. All very sensible.
So, our last opportunity to experience Lao food was at Salt and Pepper with the jovial young French waiter. The staff were very amienable and created a table for 14, provided cold beer and wine and as many spring rolls as we could manage.
I'm going to miss Laos. 
A beautiful country with friendly, welcoming people and elephants. 
2 days was never going to be enough (then again a 2 week trip is never enough). 
All these experiences in one small area (and we missed a fair few to be honest) and so many more destinations in Laos still to visit. One day....
Our plane to our next destination, Hanoi, was propeller driven and small. Marc and Holly looked apprehensive. Don't know why, I'm sure the mechanics of Laos are competent. After all, we had been seeing the standard of workmanship over the last two days. What could possibly go wrong.
Hanoi airport is a huge, modern looking complex. Certainly compared to the intimate little airport of Luang Prabang. It was a shock to the system finding major, bustling civilisation again after the laid back rustic Laos.
Hanoi is ridiculously hectic. Every man and his dog has a moped and absolutely no road sense at all. Helmets, lights and traffic lights are treated with contempt. Apparently there is a road death every hour in Hanoi. I'm amazed it's so low. The life expectancy and the age a Vietnamese citizen is able to acquire their first moped must be roughly the same. Families of 4, women riding side saddle, children no more than 10, you'll see it all in half an hour on the roads of Hanoi.
The Golden Rice Hotel is a beautiful looking building. Alas I had other matters to attend to, so left Jo to check in.
The Kangaroo Cafe around the corner is run by Max, an Aussie, and his parter Thuy. I had been in touch with Thuy by email to organise the next few days. I still had to pay for this and so far no money had changed hands. I was wondering how this was going to work. I needed to find about £1300 in local currency somehow. At about 33,000 dong to the pound, that's a lot of dong. I popped out and took out 5 million. It was a start. Only another 43 million needed by 8am tomorrow.
I returned to the hotel with my head spinning with numbers. We foolishly decided to eat in the hotel. Well, it looked like a classy establishment. We woke the restaurant staff up, they looked a bit surprised to see customers. No wine, so they were dispatched to the local shop. Warm beer, so we had to drink it with ice cubes. My dish arrived first. It looked like a Batchelors Savoury Rice with bits of crab stick. Massively disappointing. Lucas's garlic bread arrived after I had finished mine and he finished it well before Jo's cheese on toast arrived. 90 minutes for cheese on bloody toast ! I took poor, tired Lucas to bed before several had even received their meals. Our first really disappointing meal of the trip and boy, was it poor. Hanoi is supposedly a bit of a foody Mecca but you would struggle to believe it from this place. They negotiated a suitable discount though.
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