Zelma’s Trip

Just after I finished updating my blog yesterday I heard a, “Hello” and realised that Tony, an American guy I met who was in the cabin next to me on the sleeper train was at the same guesthouse.  He got off the sleeper train before me at Hoi An.  A lot of people seem to think these are massive coincidences but in all fairness it’s bound to happen occasionally with people generally following the same kind of pattern of routes.  It also seems to happen a lot of the time which is nice in a way as you meet friendly faces along the way.  Anyway he asked if I wanted to go for a beer and I agreed as there was plenty (well a bit) of time before my sleeper bus for Hanoi arrived.  We went and had a couple of beers at a local cafe/ eaterie which was really nice and I told him about my inability to sleep on moving objects.  He had some sleeping pills and offered me a couple when we got back to the guesthouse.  I sat and waited for the bus which was working on Vietnamese time (i.e. it was late) and drank a lot of water to rehydrate.  They said that bus had arrived and I thought they meant it was outside the guesthouse but it was actually down the road.  I presumed, in my ignorance, that there would be a toilet onboard, it being a sleeper bus and all.  Obviously there wasn’t and I had to sit cross-legged as we went over numerous bumps and lumps in the road.  I began reading my book and listening to my Ipod to distract myself but then they turned the lights out.  A helpful Czech (who I had been speaking to in the guesthouse) offered me a head torch.  I soon decided that, not only assisting in making me look like more of a plum, the angle was not particularly effective for reading purposes so held the light like a torch.

Finally we stopped and I have never been so grateful for a scummy Vietnamese toilet in my life.  I went into a nextdoor cafe to buy some cigarettes.  The woman informed me it was ten thousand dong, I still haven’t managed to find a place comparable to my sweet little shop in Nha Trang where it was 4000 for a packet (32,000 is roughly a pound so neither price is that painful).  Anyway so I pulled the note out of the back of my camera case and as I did so two little white pills flew out, hopped accross the table and came to a rest.  Everyone in the cafe went quiet, looked at the pills, looked at me, looked at the pills again then looked at me.  I was a little bit thrown, laughed nervously, picked them up and left.  I’m not quite sure if the locals thought this was some kind of strange currency but it was quite embarrassing.

We eventually arrived in Hanoi and for the first time I slept like a baby on a mode of transport!  I’ve checked into a central but slightly grotty guesthouse on the basis I will only be here for one night prior to meeting up with my mate Olly from Uni.  I’m in desperate need of a shower so think I might go and do that, sort myself out and then go and get some food.