Hanoi and Hạ Long Bay - Travel Diary
Wednesday 1 May 2019
It turns out the north of Vietnam is quite cold in the winter - who knew.
I certainly knew when I was starting to turn purple walking through the streets on Hanoi in shorts and a t-shirt. It was 10 degrees.
Luckily for me, Hanoi is the place to be when you require a warm coat. Every single street had numurous stores, all called 'Made in Vietnam' selling fake Northface coats. No other brand it seems. Just Northface.
When I eventually convinced myself that it was actually a vital spend if I didn't want to get pneumonia, I prepped myself for the bartering. I found a shop that had a colour I liked and picked up a medium-size to try on. I couldn't get it on. Immediately the shop owner appeared:
'You need big size, you big girl.'
'Um, excuse me I'm a size 10 so I'm not really that big'.
'Yes, you big. You bigger than me see and I'm a man'
'Maybe you're just a small man?'
'Lady, in my country, you a big girl, fact. In your country, you are probably perfect size. But here, try 2XL'
Annoyingly, it fitted perfectly and I paid full price $40 for a fake coat that made me feel like I wanted to go home and join a gym.
We were in Hanoi for 1-night before we headed off to Ha Long Bay for a New Year's Eve. Despite being Vietnam's capital city, Hanoi is actually the second largest city in the country - behind Ho Chi Minh in the south.
We had booked the Hanoi Lotus Hotel, however, when we arrived we were told we couldn't stay there due to maintenance work and they had booked us into another local hotel which was supposedly a 'free upgrade'.
It was not a free upgrade.
If it was, I dread to think what the Lotus Hotel would have been like. We ended up at the Ritz Boutique Hotel. It was grim.
In the evening I tried to turn on the TV - it didn't work. I rang reception and was told 'yes we know, the tv won't work because it rained this morning' - um. ok.
In the evening I tried to turn on the TV - it didn't work. I rang reception and was told 'yes we know, the tv won't work because it rained this morning' - um. ok.
Luckily, we were only there for the one night, so when the morning arrived we were quick the leave and head to a cafe where we were meeting our tour group for our party cruise in Halong Bay.
We booked our party cruise with Oasis Bay Cruises. We were a bit nervous about it - was it going to be lame, or too wild, or were we going to be the oldest people there?! But it was something a bit different to do for New Year, and if it was awful at least it was only one night.
It wasn't awful. It was the best New Year ever.
After a 4-hour bus journey from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay (it actually wasn't as bad as it sounds), we arrived on our boat at about 2pm on NYE. Our room was very nice - just like a hotel room. We even had a cute balcony to sit out on (we didn't of course, because it was freezing). The only downside was that the WiFi didn't work - but the whole experience was so much fun we didn't really need it.
There were hot tubs running and kayaking activities available when we arrived - which pretty much every female on the boat avoided as it was still only around 10 degrees, but the bars were open and we were free to do what we wanted. They provided a huge traditional Vietnamese dinner to line our stomachs and there was a little bit of 'organised fun' (surprisingly not that bad) at the beginning of the evening - dance off/beer yoga etc.
There were hot tubs running and kayaking activities available when we arrived - which pretty much every female on the boat avoided as it was still only around 10 degrees, but the bars were open and we were free to do what we wanted. They provided a huge traditional Vietnamese dinner to line our stomachs and there was a little bit of 'organised fun' (surprisingly not that bad) at the beginning of the evening - dance off/beer yoga etc.
Halong Bay is beautiful. It is made up of over 2,000 limestone islands/islets in the Gulf of Tonkin, and we were cruising around then with hundreds of other riverboats. I felt a little bit disappointed that we had spent our whole time on the party cruise and hadn't planned any time to explore the bay a little more.
I did ask one of the girls to take this incredibly hungover photo of me in the morning just so I could remind myself that I did, in fact, go to Halong Bay and it was pretty amazing. (Also, I'm wearing my big girl coat if you were wondering about it)
Most of the people on the trip were British - a lot of them from near my hometown - and we all bonded really quickly. There was incredibly cheap alcohol, beer pong, and Little Mix dancing. When we went to pay for our drinks the following morning, we had spent the equivalent of £27 each (actually worked this one out in £'s for once because I was with British people) for the whole afternoon/night!! Which was pretty incredible for NYE.
It was a bit weird the following day when it was all over, and we were all like 'alright bye then, nice to meet you'. And you realise, these people that you just had the best night ever with - you don't even know their surnames, and you will most probably never speak to them again.
When we did head off, we had to get a small boat back to the bus. We all climbed on and sat down and the boat started to move - I suddenly realised Sam was nowhere to be seen.
'EXCUSE ME, MY FRIEND IS NOT ON THE BOAT'
'Well that's her problem, you'll see her again in Hanoi'
The boat went silent and everyone was looking at me.
Hanoi was 4 hours away, it's pretty huge, and neither of us had working phones.
I died inside.
When we got to the bus, I was super stressed so I went to ask the tour guide if we could pass a message to the group Sam was now with. It was then he told me he was just kidding and she would be on the next boat in a minute.
Hilarious joke.
The bus journey back to Hanoi felt a lot longer than the way there. Most people were asleep and the rest of us just wanted to be asleep.
The bus journey back to Hanoi felt a lot longer than the way there. Most people were asleep and the rest of us just wanted to be asleep.
We had another 4 days in Hanoi on our return and this time we were staying at the Serene Boutique Hotel and Spa. This one was a complete contrast to the previous and was, in fact, the best hotel we stayed in whilst in Vietnam. The location was perfect, in the heart of the Old Quarter, and the staff could not have been friendlier or more helpful. They also bowed to us every time we walked in the main doors, which obviously made me feel like a queen.
Unfortunately, Sam got bed-bound-kinda-ill for the next 2 days so I was flying solo.
It was a little intimidating because Hanoi was yet another incredibly intense place with scooters literally everywhere and I didn't really have a clue where I was going. One tip we had been given prior to getting to Vietnam was when trying to cross the road you have to just walk and do not stop. The scooters will just go around you (don't do it if there are cars there though because they will just drive into you). This seemed completely crazy and we often made sure we followed a local across the road - but it does actually work!
It was a little intimidating because Hanoi was yet another incredibly intense place with scooters literally everywhere and I didn't really have a clue where I was going. One tip we had been given prior to getting to Vietnam was when trying to cross the road you have to just walk and do not stop. The scooters will just go around you (don't do it if there are cars there though because they will just drive into you). This seemed completely crazy and we often made sure we followed a local across the road - but it does actually work!
I decided to play it safe whilst on my own and find the city hop on hop off bus (I love them), where I spent the morning seeing all the city highlights from an open top bus, with headphones giving me an English commentary. I made a mental note of all the places I wanted to go once Sam had recovered and got to see a few extra along the way including the worlds longest mosaic mural which runs alongside one of the roads in Hanoi and it 4 miles long.
As I wandered around Hoan Kiem Lake (start and finish point of the bus tour), looking at a map on my phone, I was approached by two Vietnamese boys - I'd say about 16/17 years old.
I looked up as one of them was stood right next to me waving. 'Hello,' he said, "Photograph?" I thought he wanted me to take a picture of me and his friend by the lake so I nodded and waited to be handed a camera, but before I knew it he was stood next to me grinning with his thumbs up, like he was posing next to a tourist attraction, and I was stood doing some weird Chandler Bing style grin with no makeup on, a hoody and a coat on - both hoods up.
And then they were gone.
That actually happened.
I mean, I'm hoping it's because I'm a tall, blonde girl, and not that I actually looked like a Teletubby, but I will never know.
When Sam recovered, we set off for a day of sightseeing.
Our first stop was the Ho Chi Mihn Mausoleum. Because, who doesn't want to see a dead body on a Thursday morning?
The security is very strict here. After going through airport-style security to get in, you then have to walk around in a single file line, you're not allowed to stop and you're certainly not allowed to take photos.
Ho Chi Mihn was the countries most famous leader, in power from 1945 until 1965, who led Vietnams Independence movement. Following the war, Vietnam's largest city Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Mihn City. And following his death, they laid him to rest in Hanoi, and his embalmed body is in the mausoleum for everyone to look at - despite expressing wishes to be cremated before his death.
Next up was the activity I had been looking forward to the most since my bus ride - the swan pedalos.
We had the whole of Trúc Bạch Lake to ourselves, although we soon realised it was actually pretty cold and peddling was quite tiring.
So we headed to a nearby coffee shop to warm up.
Opposite this lake was the beautiful Tran Quoc Pagoda, Hanoi's oldest Buddist Temple. The temple is situated on a small island in the even bigger West Lake and is open to members of the public to visit.
In the afternoon, we decided to check out Dong Xuan Market, secretly hoping it would be along the lines of Fake City in Ho Chi Mihn.
It was however completely different. The place was even smaller and even more cramped, and the locals did not seem to have any time for the tourists (in fact, there weren't many of us there) and there was nothing really of interest to buy. Surprising, as this was listed as one of the 'top things to do in Hanoi'.
An interesting thing we noticed in the Old Quarter in Hanoi is that a lot of the streets seem to have a shopping theme. For example, there will be a specific street where most of the stores sell silk goods. The name of the streets also translates to what it is selling - in this case, silk street. Other examples we spotted were aluminium, mannequins (creepy), shoes, hats etc (although not sure the names translated for all of them as of course times have changed since the streets were named)
For our final day in Hanoi, we set out early to visit the Temple of Literature. It is a beautiful temple made up of 5 picturesque courtyards and was originally used as a place of study for the elite. It built in 1070 and is still a popular place for students to study now (although, I'm not sure I would be able to study with the number of tourists that were walking through)
We wanted to give shopping one more go, so we got a taxi out to the Vincom Centre (we thought it was a mall). The centre was more of a huge department store and was still quite interesting to look around but it was mostly branded concessions that you can get anywhere- Pandora/MAC/Levi etc. There was a viewing tower that looked over the city but it was pretty pricey considering it was a dull cloudy day and we wouldn't have been able to see much, so we gave it a miss.
As we were leaving in a taxi, we spotted a mall about 5 minutes down the road - turns out we were just in the wrong place.
For our final evening - we knew the perfect way to say goodbye to Vietnam - we went to get our nails done.
Yes, ok, that's not the most cultural thing to do, but we were pretty tired after 2 weeks of travelling around Vietnam (4 weeks of travel in total for me). We went to a place called Tiny & Nail Spa, which is located on Hàng Bông - which translates to the street of cotton (the street with the clothes shop). It cost about $20 for a gel polish manicure and they did a really good job. You also get a Vietnamese tea and biscuits.
With my sparkly new nails, it was sadly time to leave, but at least I was heading back to New Zealand for a couple more months of travel life. We had booked our flights separately so I was heading back with Air New Zealand via Hong Kong.
As this blog has firmly established, I absolutely hate flying and by the time I'd got to Hong Kong (2 hours out of my 14-hour trip) I'd had enough. Hong Kong airport was too much for me (it's ridiculously big and busy) so I booked myself into the first class lounge with LoungeBuddy and spent my 4-hour layover having a shower/massage/a la carte breakfast and lots of wine and cake to soothe my flying stress.
It was at this moment I realised I'd probably become a bit of a high-maintenance traveller.
As we were leaving in a taxi, we spotted a mall about 5 minutes down the road - turns out we were just in the wrong place.
For our final evening - we knew the perfect way to say goodbye to Vietnam - we went to get our nails done.
Yes, ok, that's not the most cultural thing to do, but we were pretty tired after 2 weeks of travelling around Vietnam (4 weeks of travel in total for me). We went to a place called Tiny & Nail Spa, which is located on Hàng Bông - which translates to the street of cotton (the street with the clothes shop). It cost about $20 for a gel polish manicure and they did a really good job. You also get a Vietnamese tea and biscuits.
With my sparkly new nails, it was sadly time to leave, but at least I was heading back to New Zealand for a couple more months of travel life. We had booked our flights separately so I was heading back with Air New Zealand via Hong Kong.
As this blog has firmly established, I absolutely hate flying and by the time I'd got to Hong Kong (2 hours out of my 14-hour trip) I'd had enough. Hong Kong airport was too much for me (it's ridiculously big and busy) so I booked myself into the first class lounge with LoungeBuddy and spent my 4-hour layover having a shower/massage/a la carte breakfast and lots of wine and cake to soothe my flying stress.
It was at this moment I realised I'd probably become a bit of a high-maintenance traveller.
Next trip: New Zealand, Northland
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