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Oct.24 We are so awful optimistic - Perry - David - Heather - Annemette & I ! So we walked out into the rain to see the total sun-eclipse - BUT we couldn't even find the sun. The clouds hang thick & gray way below the mountaintops! So we walked back to the restaurant & had some hot lemon juice instead! Heather had decided to stay an extra day - but Johnny & David left for Hanoi. Ruth was going to China - we waved goodbye to them all & walked "home" to take a nap. Later this little very reduced gang of "BESTFRIENDS" went out to dinner. The "best friend-thing" is also one of Heathers - she kept saying :"my best friend in China or my best friend in California etc…." & someone said to her "You can't have all these BEST FRIENDS " Ohhh yes, she said , You are all my best friends too - (& that's how it ended after all these years (9 now in 2004!)) we are all still in touch & each others best friends - some of us had met later & we email across borders & oceans) Oct 25. & 26. Annemette - Perry - Heather & I took a long walk down the Lao Cai road just to check it out. We were going to leave Perry behind for an extra day - while we were going to Hanoi. Today it was sunshine - off course! & our walk was really lovely a nice way to say goodbye to Sapa in. We said goodbye to Orchid guesthouse & its lovely owners & entered the bus. In Lao Cai we went noodle soup hunting before buying the train ticket - that was sooo stupid - because they only had hard seats left when we came back & it was a night train. Didn't sleep a lot on the way back & was really stiff & sleepy when we walked back to QUEENS in Hanoi. Met David on the way - he showed us his hotel (Annemette & I started to laugh it was the same hotel we stayed on the first night we spend in Hanoi in 1993.) We got a 3 bed room & moved in. Told David & Fiona (another Aussie) to meet us at Queens at 6:30pm , then we had a shower & walked out to buy train tickets - Heather went to the Ho Chi Minh museum. Later we met her in the street & we all bought CD's (copies) 2 $ a piece! We met up with all the best friends (minus Perry) but met Johnny's best friend Lisa from Bermuda went out to eat & drinking another goodbye beer or two or………….