We finally landed at Hanoi Airport, after two flights (stopover in Hong Kong), some hairy turbulence, accompanied by reading a newspaper article of how a British pilot wouldn’t dare put his wife and kids on Hong KongAirlines (who we were flying with) due to the extremely low level of safety standards. He was a former examiner for the airline but quit as didn’t want to be involved when one of their planes crashed……but we made it!!
We had a slight mishap in Hanoi when we realised the passport photos we needed to get our visa on arrival were in our checked bags, and the immigration dude said ‘not ok’ multiple times. However they efficiently return our passport with visa included and no demand for an exuberant amount of US$ to have a photo taken there and then.
Next was the battle of getting into the city without being ripped off or taken somewhere dodgey like a different hotel from the one we booked, but with the same name (drivers get commission etc).
After getting on and off mini buses for various reasons – the first attempt we got off as they wanted us to sit on the floor, second attempt we were the only ones in the van and felt too dodgy, and the third attempt, we waited so long for it to leave that we decided to find another way in (by this time we had been travelling for over 12 hours so were buggered). We finally found a taxi into the city for $15 US, shared with a French couple on the flight who had lost their bags!

We had booked our flash hotel in the old city of Hanoi before we left NZ as a treat and change from hostels and trains, and man were we stoked!! Doors opened for us, free fruit and water, huge room, comfy king bed, English TV, laptop, yummy buffet breakfast, huge bath, air conditioning, daily room service where we caught them ironing the sheets…we were in paradise!

The following day we spent organising the next 10 days to Halong Bay and Sapa, and getting wet in the various down pours through the day. The people in Vietnam are lovely, very welcoming and not too much hassle….Turkey was the worst by far! Most people drive scooters, there are no obvious road rules except to beep your horn if your behind, passing or in front of someone i.e. ALL the time!!! So its very noisy but adds to the atmosphere as a buzzing place to be. It was cool and refreshing to see another culture – traditional cone shaped vietnamese hats, sellers carrying their goods hanging off a stick which is balanced on the their shoulders, road side cafes where the food is cooked literally on the road side and customers sit on tiny plastics chairs that we only use for toddlers at home!

We visited the ANZ bank (!), and the temple…which sits on the small Lake in the middle of the old city, then wandered around the streets enjoying the culture and dodging scooters! Dinner that night was accidentally expensive – we went to a well recommended restaurant which served a variety of local food and the odd ‘delicacy’. We now LOVE fresh spring rolls, can’t get enough of them (the deep fried ones are also yummy but as a lot of food here is fried we’re trying to avoid the frying if possible).

The following day we got up early to get to the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, which was a weird experience – seeing a preserved body of a person who didn’t want to be preserved felt strange. The presidential grounds were really nice, and the stilt house showed just how simple Ho Chi Minh lived. We attempted to learn more from the HoChi Minh museum but the explanations catered only for the Vietnamese and French. By this stage it was so hot and humid, so slowly we wandered down the road past various embassies (North Korea, Ukraine, Spain) until we found a cafe with cold drinks and powerful fans!! Scotty is loving the iced coffees while I’m going for the freshly squeezed lime juice….amazing!!
Behind our cafe was the military museum where there is a free outdoor display of many US war aircraft which the Vietnamese shot down during the war. There was also a sculpture-like display of an aircraft crashing to the ground which was interesting.

The Temple of Literature was not far away, so we braved the hot weather and walked there. It was the first university in Vietnam, and was made up of adjoining courtyards with lotus ponds, lots of old literature carved into stone, and two temples who we think were dedicated to the various teachers of the University. The architecture was the main reason we went, as it’s one of the best preserved examples of buildings from 1000 years ago.

Scott found a large classy food court-type restaurant for lunch where we just ate yummy spring rolls again!!
We ventured on to find an old church which was closed for a funeral, got rained upon ++, and went to a cafe with terrible service and coffee but it overlooked the lake which was nice.
We finally made it home to enjoy our lovely hotel!!!