Hanoi sleep

I’ve been woken from deep sleep by many things – sunlight reflecting from a stainless steel chair leg, the smell of a blackcurrant fruit teabag left in a cup and a dog farting in it’s sleep are just three I remember.

And recently the Vung Tau fishing fleet speeding back to the beach to unload their catch at 5am were responsible for an early start.

But in Hanoi a few weeks ago it was cold water splashing from the bedside table onto my hot face at 4.30am: earplugs can do nothing about that.

There was a elemental thunderstorm, and a tile had come loose from the roof above my room: the water dripped in three places from the suspended ceiling, and I had to get towels and glasses from the bathroom to catch all the drips and to muffle the sound so I could get back to sleep.

Let no-one say I’m not drinking every last moment of this year!

It’s not that I’m a particularly light sleeper – in Nepal I managed to sleep through elephants mating behind my bungalow, but the super-strong local beer may have had something to do with that……..

Apologies for the delay in updating these pages – I’m just having a good time and can’t spend long in front of a computer screen!