2nd February - Hanoi to Dong Hoi

2nd February - Hanoi to Dong Hoi

Our taxi was coming to pick us up at 5.40 so set the alarm for 5.05.  In the event, I didn't' need the alarm as was quite ill in the night and hardly slept at all.  I've picked up a cold plus some other sort of bug with bouts of shivering Interspersed with the occasional hot bout all accompanied by muscle cramps and aching joints plus some vomiting too!! 

It was quite a change travelling through Hanoi so early as the traffic was almost non existent, although various fruit and flower markets were very busy.  We had quite a long queue for check in at the airport and then joined another queue for security.  The girl in front of us took loads of selfies in the queue and was forced to delete them all by the security guard checking our boarding passes. 

We then sat in a cavernous building by the gate which was very cold so out came all our layers.  

Eventually we boarded the plane which was lovely and warm plus we got a blanket each which was very welcome.  However, when we were just under halfway through our 45 minute flight, the pilot announced there was a technical fault so we've just returned to Hanoi and are now sitting in another freezing building waiting for an announcement........

......we ended up being delayed 3 hours and flew down to Dong Hoi in a little prop plane.  It's just as cold as Hanoi down here unfortunately.  Our guide and driver met us and whisked us off for a lunch.  I couldn't eat anything, Chris has an upset stomach so tried a little bit of the soup, and Kim managed some of the luke warm veggies.  Our guide was most dismayed about us leaving so much food, but we assured him it was us not really feeling well and nothing to do with the restaurant.

As it was quite late by now, Quy (pronounced wee) said it was too late to get to the caves and suggested we went to the hotel instead which sounded fantastic to me.  As we've seen tunnels from the Vietnamese/American war near Saigon already, we're going to pass on that tomorrow and instead do the caves which are of much more interest to all of us.