Hanoi

Hanoi

Day 1
After a very quick 30 minute flight, we arrived in Hanoi! We grabbed our bags and found an ATM. We both have a travel bank card, which is free withdrawals (just the atm fee you have to pay). It’s always weird using new currency and having to get used to it. 30, 000 dong is about £1! With Asha, we headed for a local bus that was about 30 minutes into Hanoi center.

As soon as we stepped off the bus, I was gob smacked literally with all the traffic! It’s true what they say about Hanoi traffic…crazy! There are hundreds of mainly motorbikes and some cars and they just drive at you and don’t stop at crossings! You just kinda have to walk and hope they go around you haha.

Sweating with our heavy bags on our backs, we walked to our hostel that was about 20 minutes away. On a side note, it is so hot here like Laos and not the muggy sort of hot. The sun is shining so much! Anyway, we stayed at Hanoi Centre Hostel and it was our first dorm! The privates were a little expensive so we thought we’d give it a go. They were double bed bunk beds, which were cool. The hostel was in great location, it was very clean and even served free beer 5-6pm and we got there just in time! Even though at first I wasn’t too keen on the dorm situation, it was actually pretty ok!

Once we’d checked in, we headed out to explore. There are stalls everywhere with locals selling produce mainly fruits. So many of them are just sitting on the sides of the streets with their produce with baskets on the floor. Also, the Vietnamese women carry fruit in little baskets on their shoulders. It’s always surprising to see how differently some people live and what they have to do every day.

During our evening stroll we went in a little travel seat sorta thing that someone bikes on – it was funny! We kept having to close our eyes going in and out of the traffic haha.

After, we tried our first Vietnamese dish, which was beef noodle salad. Delicious! Prices are again cheap like Thailand and Laos. You can eat for £1.50-£2. We continued to walk around the busy streets until it was bed time.

Day 2
As soon as we had breakfast and were ready, we headed straight to the train tracks. I’d seen so many pictures of it and thought it looked so cool. Our hostel was only a 4 min walk away. Once we got there, we spent a while walking up and down and admiring the locals who lived there. Houses are either side of the train tracks and are SO close! Many of them were sitting outside on the floor washing their dishes in big pots. So eye opening! We sat outside a cafe next to the track and ordered typical Vietnamese coffee.. egg coffee! It is made from raw egg, which sounds horrible but it was actually quite nice. It was such a hot day again so we sat in the shade. Anyway, the trains pass every couple of hours and there are timetables so you know when. Bells ring, locals and cafe owners tell you to stand back and suddenly, a massive train appears and whizzes passed you. Crazy! I actually had goose bumps!

After the train madness, we headed back to the hostel to get some suncream on and to discuss what we are doing next in Vietnam. Before we came travelling, we made a rough plan of where we wanted to go, how to get there and what we wanted to see. However, this is a rough guide and we pretty much decide on the go. We have only got 2 weeks in Vietnam as we decided not to buy the Visa (as it costs about 30 pound and there was so many other countries we wanted to visit) therefore we had serious planning to do! We then booked Halong Bay for the following day. I knew I definitely wanted to go there after seeing so many people go there!

I had a bit of a wobbly day for the rest of the day and felt a bit ugh and missed home comforts so decided to chill for a couple of hours and catch up on things.

When I felt better a bit better, we walked to the Hoen Kiem Lake. It was a beautiful lake with pathways to stroll along and surrounded by trees. During our walk, a couple of Vietnamese girls came up to us and asked if they could practice their English with me. Of course I said yes! They had little notebooks that they were reading from and we had a little discussion where they asked me questions and I asked them. They were about college age. When I said I was from England, they were so excited and said they loved England! I wonder why Haha? It was really nice to talk with them.

In the evening, we tried some Vietnamese Pho, which is noodle soup with beef. Oh my it was delicious and one of my top meals! After, we had a look around the market. We’ve visited a fair few markets but this one was HUGE and sold a variety of knock off things such as trainers, sports wear, sunglasses, bags, all sorts! I bought a cute straw bag that was little and could fit easily in my big bag! And Lewis bought a t shirt! Then, in the corner of my eye, I spotted a Dominos in the distance ah! I wanted one so bad but I couldn’t justify it with the traveller budget! Heartbroken from not having Dominos, we headed back to get an early night for Halong Bay in the morning.

Day 3
8am pick up!

When we arrived in Hanoi, we figured out we wanted to do the Ha Giang Loop. It is basically a bike tour around Northern Vietnam which lasts 3 nights. We were aware our time here was limited and knew we arrived back from Halong Bay at 5pm tomorrow so we spontaneously booked the bike loop for tomorrow night when we arrive back! That’s how last minute we have to be sometimes!

Anyway back to today. It was about a 4 hour bus journey to Halong Bay. Once we arrived, we were taken to the boat that we were going to stay on. We didn’t do a lot of research into what tour to go but we thought staying on a boat would be an interesting experience! When we arrived, we found out it had no wifi but it was nice to be without it for a bit (didn’t stop me taking pictures though!) Despite it being a small boat, it was actually very fancy and we thought we would now be living quite luxury for the night ha ha. They served us lunch and wow, it was delicious! Then, we headed on a little boat to the a cave.

This is when we realised maybe we should have done more research and not gone with this package. We probably wouldn’t have gone to visit a cave if it was our idea. It was heaving with tourists – way too busy. The cave was okay but nothing spectacular. After, our tour guide took us to Tip Top Island, which is a beach with a hike up to the viewpoint. We had about an hour here (again obviously strict tour guide time limits) and our tour guide said we could either do a hike or chill at the beach. We chose to do the hike because the beach was rammed and not the nicest. Ten minutes or so up the hill, we were HOT! These hikes are hard in 30 degree sunshine! But wow the view of Halong Bay was beautiful so it was well worth it.

When we got back to the boat, it was about sunset time. I had a beer and Lewis and I chilled on the top deck watching the sunset. It was one of the best I’d ever seen! The whole sky turned pink. It was a breathtaking view and we felt lucky to be watching it on top of a boat.

Supposedly, we then had a ‘cooking class’, which turned out to be making spring rolls but without prepping anything or frying them haha. Hey ho!

The rest of the evening, we had dinner served on the boat again it was amazing. It was a lot different to having £1 street food anyway! We spent some time chatting to others on the boat and also fishing from the deck. With no bait haha! I guess it was peaceful to sit and chill though.

Day 4
Omg we had a strict 6am wake up for kayaking! Again, a time we would not have chosen ourselves! Although it was early, we were both excited! We kayaked around the bay for about an hour. The water was crystal clear, the sun was gleaming and the bay was beautiful! It was a great experience.

After, our breakfast was served on the boat (I could get used to this fancy food!). Then our next trip was a pearl farm! We learnt how they catch and make pearls and were given a little tour on how it all works. It was interesting to see the workers at work making the pearls! Even though I listened, I still couldn’t quite fully understand the whole process. Reminds me of teaching when I ask children if they were listening when they say ‘I dont get it!’.

A short while later, we had lunch served! We weren’t even hungry from breakfast but of course we still ate! Next, it was about time to head back. Halong Bay was beautiful and it was great to visit. It was a different experience staying on the boat and it felt like a little luxurious! However, it was quite expensive and there were a lot of elements of the tour we would have done differently so that’ll teach us to not rush into booking things!

Once we arrived back at our hostel in Hanoi, we had about 1 and a half hour to sort ourselves out, have food and pack our bag again for an over night bus to Ha Giang for the loop! Like Halong Bay, we were allowed to leave our big bags safely there and just take our little back pack. I had to squeeze everything in!

Now for the 9 hour journey to Ha Giang where we arrived at 4am yay! Will write a new blog for our Ha Giang bike loop.

Thanks for reading.
Laura and Lewis x