Hanoi, Vietnam

Hello!

On Tuesday the 11th of September I took a flight from Phnom Penh to Hanoi, in Vietnam. My boyfriend (Pete) was going to join me the next day, so I had booked a hotel room near the airport to stay at. I arrived around 22:00, got myself a Vietnamese sim card and some data and then went outside to get a 'grab' taxi. It was super busy outside with buses, taxis and mini buses all trying to pick people up. It was so busy in fact that I waited for two 'grab' taxis to arrive but they didn't. I then tried to get a taxi but no one would take me because my hotel was so near by. After 45mins of waiting and trying to get a taxi, I was tired from carrying my bags and hot. In the end I got in this mini bus which cost me $5 which was crazy but I just payed it. They ended up dropping me off at the wrong hotel. At this point I had had enough. I was stuck at the wrong hotel in the middle of somewhere I didn't know and I didn't feel comfortable walking 15mins to my hotel in the dark with all my luggage. This was one of those moments where I thought - why do I do this to myself? But luckily there are nice people in the world and the hotel owner of the wrong hotel I was at offered to give me a lift to my hotel.

The next day Pete arrived! I picked him up from the airport and we made our way to our hotel in the old quarter of Hanoi, it was called hotel 3b Hanoi and it was amazing for the price. We payed $10 a night between us and this included free breakfast in the morning. They let us check in early which meant that Pete could go straight to sleep (he was jetlagged). I went out to get my bearings, I also went to book a cruise in Ha Long bay and I got some food. In the evening we wondered down to Hoan Kiem lake, we walked around for a bit before seeing a puppet show at Thang Long puppet theatre. They perform puppet shows in the water with traditional Vietnamese music. It was really interesting to watch.

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The next day we caught a 'grab' taxi to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. It's basically a big building where the ex president Ho Chi Minh's body is kept. I had to buy a piece of cloth to wrap around my waist to cover my knees, then we had to line up in two straight lines and march around the grounds until we got to the building. At first I didn't realise that it was Ho Chi Minh's actual dead body because it looked so weird and the concept was strange to me, but we were supervised by soldiers throughout our march and there were soldiers inside guarding his body so it must of been real. We then headed to the presidential palace to see the grounds. It was pretty, Pete enjoyed the garden.

Afterwards, we walked to the temple of literature. It's a place where people went to study. With student discount it cost us 15,000VND to get in. It is one of the oldest buildings in Hanoi and had beautiful gardens and architecture. It was also extremely hot at this point so we decided to head back to our hotel to cool down before heading back out to train street. We got there at 3pm in preparation for the train to pass but unfortunately the train never came :( however, we did get some pretty cool photos. It was cool to see how people lived so close to the track, it was hard to imagine a train fitting through it. I found this café online which had amazing views of the Long Bien Bridge, so we headed there afterwards. The café was called Serein, we sat and relaxed whilst drinking Hanoi's famous egg coffee and enjoyed the view.

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On our last day in Hanoi we went to Lotte Tower. It's the third tallest tower in Vietnam and it had great views of the whole city from the top. We spent quite a long time there before heading back to the old quarter for the night market. The night market happens every Friday and Saturday. Roads get closed off for stalls to be set up, people perform in the streets and peoples houses suddenly turn into pop up shops selling north face bags and adidas t-shirts. It's a really great atmosphere, people turn up from all over the place and the streets became crowded. Pete and I planned to wonder for about an hour but it quickly turned into two as we found that we had to shuffle to get anywhere! But luckily we were giants in the crowd, we could see over people and find our way out.