Adventures By Design

In which the travelers take alternate approaches to laundry

We woke up feeling much better this morning; it’s amazing what a night without diesel fumes will do for you! Before we headed down for breakfast, we looked off our balcony and saw Amy’s skirt on a one-story building right next to our hotel (remember it had blown off her balcony the night before). When we found Nathan to tell him about the skirt we found out that they had also found Amy’s tank top on the patio beside the hotel restaurant. Things were really looking up when our tour guide agreed to talk to the hotel staff in an effort to find a ladder and retrieve the skirt.

With all the clothing secured it was time to make our way back to Hanoi, first by bus, then a boat to Ha Long town where we stopped for lunch. The meal was uneventful except for the large quantities of water dripping out of the ceiling and one of the light fixtures! It looked like an electrocution waiting to happen and all of us were taking note of the nearest fire extinguishers. Luckily there were no negative repercussions other than a slippery floor.

After lunch we climbed onto another bus that would take us the rest of the way back to Hanoi. Along the way we made the obligatory stop at a handicraft factory. On the way out we had seen lacquerware production, and this time we got to see stone carvers at work. The driveway up to the factory was lined with large examples of their handywork, a disproportionate number of which featured topless women (or goddesses, or mermaids, or nymphs… you get the picture). We nicknamed the place Booby Garden, but sadly did not take any photos.

Back in Hanoi we headed to our hotel. Laundry was critical since we are heading to Sapa tomorrow and won’t have any other chances to wash stuff. Ric took it on himself to wash his clothes in the bathtub, wring them out, rig up a laundry line, and hang everything up to dry. Gin put all her stuff in a bag and brought it down to hotel reception; it should all be clean and dry by noon tomorrow. Then she filed her nails while she waited for Ric to finish with his clothes…

Laundry taken care of we headed out for dinner. First we planned to go to a lovely-looking French restaurant, but once we saw the (North American level) prices on the menu we changed our minds and ended up at an ‘Italian’ restaurant where we indulged in a couple of pitchers of beer and Nathan and Ric enjoyed the all-you-can eat pizza and pasta buffet.

The night was still young so we decided to buy a pirated DVD and head back to our room to watch it. We chose a DVD, bought water and snacks, and returned to our hotel room, only to discover that the TV and DVD player in our room couldn’t communicate properly. borrowing our remote (theirs didn’t work), Nathan headed up to their room to try to make their TV/DVD player work. Unfortunately, by the time he had it all set up, it was already past 10pm and we felt like it was too late to watch a two hour movie. Thankful for Nathan’s IT skills, and a little frustrated by the hotel’s technical problems, we called it a night, did a little writing for the blog, and went to sleep.