BIG NEWS: I drank a coffee

You can call the Braunschweiger Zeitung and the Thornbury Gazette and tell them that you have the scoop of the year: I, Megan Skinner, drank a coffee and I liked it. Granted it was heavily laden with condensed milk, but hey, it was coffee. I'll prepare myself for the paprazzi onslaught when I get home.
So the last day on Cat Ba was fairly uneventful-just woken at the crack of dawn by a cement mixer. Hoenstly, I felt like it was right next to my bed. So that was nice. We just hung around for a few hours until our bus left back to Hanoi. On the little speed boat between Cat Ba and Ha Long, a Vietnamese man made it very clear to me that he found my grey hair rather hilarious. Who knew that taking the mick transcends the language barrier? Try and get to a specific place and you don't know where you'll end up, but making fun of people in another language is very very easy to communicate.
The bus journey was quite a long one, but there was no unceremonial chucking out at the side of the road this time, thank the Lawd. Back in Hanoi, we got off the bus to be mobbed by the taxi mafia of Hanoi and promtply teamed up with some Germans (surprise surprise) to get a taxi into town. Ahhhhh Bavarians, no matter how long I live in Germany, there will never come a day when I understand more than 50% of what you say. I think they were nice, but really, they could have been hurling insults the whole way and I wouldn't have known any different. We managed to get into a hostel and went out to feed our rumbling tums: a plate of fried deliciousness was not enough to satisfy us, so we treated that as an appetizer and went for an immense egg and pork sandwich. Yes Beth, one of those sarnies! Following a few beers, we were ready to crash.
Yesterday was a cool day- super relaxed, which was good after allllll the strenuous activity. Ha! We decided that culture was the order of the morning, and trundled off to the museum of Vietnamese history. There is lots, it turns out. Vietnam is a very historical country! Those who have ever been on holiday with me know that museums are not my favourite things, but I behaved well and didn't break anything, so you can see it as a huge development in my path to mature and responsible adult. The museum was followed by the title-worthy coffee break, and then lunch. Bun cha, for the record, is bloody nice. Look it up and work out how to cook it for me when I come home, pleeeease. We then walked around for a lot of hours. Well, I say walked around- it was more just getting lost. We did chance upon a great cafe, though, which had seriously the best peanuts I've ever eaten. Stupid as it sounds, they were a massive highlight of the day. We even went back there later with some people from the hostel and their lives were also changed by the peanuts.
The day ended with a little beer tour of Hanoi with, of course, a German in tow. Very funny indeed! We're off to stay with a couchsurfer this evening so wish us luck!
Hope everyone is well