Day 13: Quan Lan to Hanoi

So much for sleeping-in - we had to set the alarm for 05:30 to meet our boat, which was scheduled to leave at 07:00. We enjoyed another slippery Tuktuk ride through the mud to get back to the dock and boarded our boat (which happened to have a large, dead stingray tied to the back deck).

Our tuktuk

Not our boat

Our boat - note the stingray hanging off the back

We were reunited with the van back on the mainland (and our luggage - which we had left behind after our guide told us that it was likely to be tied on the roof of the boat if there wasn't much space inside). Then it was a long drive back to Hanoi. The road was quite busy, and lined with houses (no more spectacular mountain scenery). Every road-side stall seemed to be selling pineapples, and we also passed quite a lot of beautiful bonsai trees. We had seen a few of these already - they tended to be quite large (around 1m high), but always beautifully sculptured (bonsais, not pineapples...)

We stopped for lunch at an art centre. The garden outside was filled with sculpted stone statues, and the inside with all sorts of art and crafts. Most of these were embroidered pictures which were made by disabled women - they were copies of paintings, and made of panels of solid silk-thread stitching (hard to describe, but imagine a lot of time and work). The larger ones took almost a year to complete. I chose a small one as a memento of our trip.

I think he's ticklish

Eventually, we made it back to Hanoi (still shrouded by misty rain). We stayed in the same hotel as our very first night, but this time in a much nicer room (which became promptly festooned with all our muddy biking gear which we had washed in the bathtub)(yes - an actual bathtub!).

Then went for a walk, primarily on a mission to satisfy a week-long craving for dairy products. We found a cafe that had menus in English and enjoyed a mango smoothie for Ryan, and an iced coffee with real, actual cream on top for me. It was only after we passed the cafe again walking back to the hotel that we discovered it was called "Tit Coffee"... And then also managed to walk right by the entrance to the hotel without realizing and got temporarily very confused and lost.

Our guide took us out for one last dinner. This time at quite a fancy restaurant in an old French-colonial-looking building. Not only did we enjoy dishes that included soft-shell crab and creme brulee, we also got to satisfy another craving for fresh fruit juice (which we hadn't seen since leaving the Eco Village at Pan Hou).

The view from our hotel room 

Ryan basking in the glow of the internet