We took a motocycle ride from Ga Lao Cai to Lao Cai town for the border crossing. There were the expected hassle while crossing borders: (1) we have to clear health quarantine, border and immigration checks for the vietnamese side (2) we have to undergo some strict physical inspection on my dear passport for the chinese side. Me, being proud of my Chinese parentage, tried to spoke near-perfect mandarin (even with a mainland Chinese slang) when I saw Chinese immigration officers. This took them by surprise and they asked me questions like "Singaporeans know how to speak Chinese?". I can’t helped but to "laugh" along with them. :( I suppose it is not everyday where you can see 2 Sillyporeans crossing the border here. The return leg was slightly better though with the officers wishing us good luck and the usual "zai jians" (see us back in China soon).

The sleepers of the night train (SP2) to Hanoi were fully booked so we have to settle for soft seats (120kdong). Pretty uneventful though the train broke down in the middle of nowhere and thus was delayed. We arrived in Hanoi at 7am (scheduled 5am) with the usual fanfare and got up on a Honda Dream to fly us up to the Old Quarter. We settled for Prince 55, P Hang Bac. After dropping our heavy backpacks, we began our exploration of Hanoi, the Paris of the Orient.