Hanoi, Vietnam (Dec. 29, 30, 2014)

Dec. 29
Yesterday I spent the day with Stella, waiting for it to be time for me to catch my Tuk Tuk to the Phnom Penh Airport to board a flight to Hanoi. It is always a little scary to leave a country that you’ve gotten a bit familiar with, to go to another country where you know nothing, and cannot even convert the currency into anything that makes sense to you. It’s exciting at the same time, but a lot of work that you don’t have to do once you’re  comfortable somewhere.

I felt really bad for Stella, having missed her flight and stressing that her Cambodian Visa would run out at the end of the day on the 29th, as would mine. Well, luck was finally on her side, as she did find another flight that was leaving before midnight and it even happened to be a more direct flight to Toronto than the one she had previously booked. We hung out, I helped her pack her bag again to include the 3 kgs of spicy nuts she was bringing back for gifts. Then we went for breakfast and just chilled for a while. It was a nice breezy day, but got really hot early in the afternoon. I was thinking that Hanoi would be a nice break in the heat as it’s quite a bit further north and tends to be cooler this time of year.

I went for a massage before I was to get my Tuk Tuk and enjoyed a great massage by a bling woman at the Seeing Hands Massage place that was just behind our hostel. She was awesome and I felt much better after having it.

Then Stella and I went for our last Cambodian lunch together at a soup place around the corner. It was really nice to have a bowl of soup together before parting company. Then we said our goodbyes and my Tuk Tuk driver loaded me up and off we went to the airport.

Soup for lunch

Stella paying at the soup vendor

Tuk Tuk ride to airport......yikes,
it's going to be a close one.

On the way sight

Sculpture at Phnom Penh Airport

Once on the Vietnam Airlines plane, after a 50 minute delay in boarding, we were off to Vietiane, Laos, first, then to Hanoi. I arrived without any problems and my Visa was all in order so I just sailed through the Immigration checkpoint to find my young driver waiting anxiously outside the baggage area holding a sign with my name on it. Boy was I glad to see him, as by then, it was about 10:30 pm and very far to get to the city, busy and unfamiliar for me. He was sweet, spoke a bit of English, was 25 years old and asked me where my husband was. I told him I didn’t have one so he asked me how old I was. I told him and he said it was the same age as his dad…lol. Then we sang karaoke to his kicking stereo almost all the way to the hostel. He liked old music, which I actually knew, and Karaoke is super big here, so we belted it out. It was really fun.

My first intro to Vietnamese

Interesting to see it in these two
languages

Flight attendant for Vietnam Airlines

Hanoi International Airport

Arrivals

Dec. 30

Today I got up around 6:30 am as one of the people in the room was leaving and was packing her bag etc. I was well rested because I went to bed around 11:30 or so and slept like a log, so it was ok. I didn’t get up, but was awake, thinking and being cozy. Oh yeah, when I arrived in Hanoi, I stepped out of the airport to a brisk 12 degrees or so. It was a bit of a shock in my light cotton pants, long sleeved shirt and hoodie, but not really too bad, just different than what I’ve been used to for the past two months. This morning it was chilly, but as the day wore on, the temperature rose to about 20 or 21 degrees with a bright sun. It was great not to be sweating, wearing my hat and loads of sunscreen. I don’t mind the break in the weather, one bit. I will be fine to work my way down south into the heat again, but for a few days or weeks, the northern weather will suit me well. It’s not rainy or grey and quite comfortable. 

I went to the top floor of the hostel, the rooftop, to have the included daily breakfast, which was really quite good. Jon, the coffee is amazing and I had three cups this morning. I can’t believe the price and quality of this place, it’s called the Hanoi Hostel and I found it online and booked it after checking the ratings and not finding many other hostels here that have female only dorms. I love the female dorms because usually the snoring is a lot less, if at all. Anyway, I think this place costs 5.50 US per night, with the breakfast included and an incredible tour, bus and event booking option at the front desk if you want it. What a deal! Oh, they give you free beer between 6-7 pm as well, though that’s not for me as I don’t drink beer. It is a real plus for poor backpackers though and helps with the meeting of others in the hostel

View from terrace

Included breakfast

Breakfast bar where you get the food

My dorm room

My bed by the window

View from the window

Bathroom within the room

Then I gathered up my courage, grabbed the map and decided to head out for a walk around. That too is always a bit daunting on your first foray out into a new city. Especially when the traffic is just nuts, and you have no idea how to really get around or where you are. I am staying in the Old Quarter in Hanoi, which is full of little streets that weave in and out of themselves, and change names several times without notice. The nice thing here is, that they do actually have street signs, which were few and far between in Cambodia. 

The first stop for me was to get some of my US money changed into Vietnamese Dong, as none of the shops or restaurants will accept US currency. A girl I met told me that she and her boyfriend went to the money exchange place recommended by the front desk. I asked her how much they gave them for the exchange, she said 20,000 Dong for a US dollar. Ok, so off I went, in that direction to find the exchange place. The girl I met told me to look for a place that looked like it bought your old gold for money. I pictured the Oliver guy in Toronto and laughed to myself. Before I got anywhere near that place, I stopped at a bank to ask what rate they would give me. I had looked it up online before leaving and it said just over 21,000 Dong per US dollar. Anyway, this bank said they would buy the US for 21, 360 for each dollar, so I grabbed it. Seemed fair to me, and as much as the currency rate stated online so that was cool.

Street scene

Very busy with traffic all the time

Beautiful fruit here

Scene while walking

Next, I wanted to find myself a tiny calculator because there was no way I could possibly rely on my brain to do the conversions for the money, when bartering with people. Also, since my Vietnamese language skills are not good enough to understand the amount they are offering me, putting it on the calculator back and forth for negotiating is really helpful. Finding a little purse size calculator was my first challenge. I stopped in at a few shops, but no one had anything. One lady told me to go to the Market to find one, so that’s where I headed. I did find one there, and bartered with the woman to come away with a purse sized calculator for 3 Canadian dollars. A great deal I thought, and so much fun to go back and forth with the vendors to arrive at a mutually agreeable price. I found out how to say ‘thank you’ and have been using it all day. Everyone laughs a bit, but seems very happy that at least I know how to say that. It is Ka Moon. I don’t know if that’s how you spell it, but that’s how you say it.

The Market

The Market 

After that, I decided to try to find this coffee place that the girl I met told me about. She said that a university student who took them on a tour told her about it. I walked and walked trying to find this place by the address, but had little luck. I thought I’d give it one more try and that maybe it was on the cross street and not the street I was on. Sure enough it was, so I stopped, sat down and had a fantastic Vietnamese coffee. It was great and the shop was so interesting. Jon, you would have loved it and I thought of you throughout that whole experience.

Kim Lai Coffee Shop

My coffee

This was the coffee I tried

Many coffees to try

The grinders in the shop

The shop from across the street

Next, I thought I would try to see if I could find the Botanical Gardens, which were a fair walk, out of the Old Quarter and to the west a bit. I really enjoyed finding my way there as I saw the city change from tiny streets with nowhere to walk, to large streets with sidewalks and traffic lights. Check out some of the photos of this walk, it was really cool. The Gardens were lovely, quiet in the middle of the honking traffic, and peaceful. The entrance fee to go there was 11 cents Canadian or 200 Dong. I found that so funny.

On the way to the gardens

Gardens

In the Botanical Gardens 

Lady feeding the doves

Since the Gardens were pretty far away, I decided to stop at a lovely looking street Pho place for a bowl of soup. There were many locals eating there and the soup looked amazing, so I stopped. It was amazing and had all sorts of things in it, as you can see. It was 1.67 for the bowl, which is just ridiculous, but ever so wonderful. Jan, remember the first time you and dad took me to eat Pho soup in Winnipeg? I ended up going there many times in the following years, to that same place I started in. Also, for all of you that have eaten Pho with me in Kensington Market, which is a good number of readers…..lol……you would have found this incredible. I’m not even sure if it actually was Pho, but it was close enough and super fantastic. I’ll have to conduct further research to let you know….hahaha.

My Pho soup...mmmm

I stopped at Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum to take photos, but it ended up not to be the right place, so I’ll have to try again another day. I did see the Museum though, and will return there to go in, but my hooves were too sore today and it was getting late, so I didn’t go in today. There were just so many cool things to see. Later I went to dinner with some other girls from my hostel. Japanese, Swedish and the rest Canadian, working as teachers in Japan and Australia.

Group for dinner

Bon dinner, so good 

Bakery we had dessert at

Same

Same