Old Quarter Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi at 8am and began our usual routine of walking to find a hotel, settled in, freshened up, and began our day of checking out the city. Hanoi is another bustling city with narrow streets filled with shops and restaurants and scooters zooming every which way!
We were pretty tired after a lousy sleep on the overnight bus, so we …

Quite literally.

But let's talk about the bus journey getting here to start. That wasn't so entertaining. As 24 hour buses go, it was fine. Here's a big bus, with a fair bit of space and a good amount of breaks between, heck, it even had a toilet.

It also has theives.

Yes, the iPod is gone to the black markets, and the …

6th - 9th September - Hanoi and Halong Bay

6th September

Now I have seen some interesting things been transported on motorbikes during my travels. Just a few include .... whole families (including mum's doing the school run), boxes of eggs, bonsai trees, huge vases (strapped to either side of the bike), a push bike, a man carrying …

Like any other city Hanoi is super busy...

Leute quetschen dich auf der Strasse immer wieder an und versuchen dir etwas zu verkaufen. Überall sind Autos und Motorradfahrer und JEDER ist am hupen und schreien und .... die Stadt ist einfach nur laut und die Menschen sind nur aufs Geld machen ausgerichtet.

11ter Nov.
Von Dalag …

I can't help but compare Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh City. When doing so Hanoi's superiority as a holiday destination becomes apparent. From the airport to the hotel to the street-scape and astonishing beauty I have fallen in love with Hanoi with certain re-visit in the coming few years.

There is so much character in this city. We had dinner at …

I booked our 3 day, 2 night Ha Long Bay tour at 10:00 on Christmas eve night after a wonderful dinner at one of Hanoi's many Gekko restaurants. APT Tours, Hanoi picked us up from the Art Hotel on time at 8:00am to commence the three andf a half hour bus ride to Halong City. Chaos ensued once we arrived in Halong City with hundreds of tourists and …

The flight was 7 in the morning, we got to Ho Chin Minh city at 9 and waited for the 3hour layover. We finally got to Hanoi International Airport at 3 in the afternoon. At this point, the 4 growing boys' stomach were scorning at us. We quickly took our backpacks and headed for the door. Little did we know it, before the automated sliding glass …

Our initial fears towards the Socialist Republic of Vietnam were further enhanced when we were greeted by military in soviet-era uniforms at the airport. We had a very long and nervous wait at the counter while we waited for our Visas to be approved.

Once through customs we booked a taxi and made our way into Hanoi – population: 3.5 …

It was a really great experience coming to Hanoi and walking throught the old quartier, where people and motor-bikes animate streets, full of shop-houses.
Yes, shop-houses, that are shops in the front-end and house inside!
There you can see and buy a lot of thinks: t-shirts, lapids, strongboxes, spices, tools, fake money, fishes, dried …

After our return from Halong Bay and the fiasco that is tourism in Vietnam, we were glad to be back in Hanoi, doing things on our own terms.

We had a quick freshen up and then after some tea went with Andrew and our other new friends from the boat epic to see the Water Puppet show at the theatre. It is a centuries old tradition that used …

... enthusiasm is refreshing and tiring in equal measure. We spent 10 days here, based at Hotel Splendid Star www.splendidstarhotel.com in Hanoi‘s Old Quarter, and here’s what we got up to…… We landed at Noi Bai airport in grey, cool ...

... cows and bulls were walking down the middle of the highway!   Xmas day we got up early and started to walk though the "Old Quarter" of the downtown area. All the shops were open with fresh food goods, jewelry, toys, clothes and many other items. ...

... he proudly showed us his transcripts), the only work he could find was cooking on a ship. We are staying in the Old Quarter in Hanoi where the traffic (described in our guidebook as "manic") makes Bangkok's seem tame. There's continual horn honking ...

... a call from L's sister, Lesley. After over an hour on the phone (!), we head out to a restaurant in the Old Quarter called "Little Hanoi", which does fantastic Vietnamese food in good sized portions - and is cheap! Mon 28th July - Take a call from ...

... 't know. Hanoi greeted us at 8pm with an electric hum of motorbikes and chaos in the streets. Our guesthouse is located in the Old Quarter, or the backpacker's ghetto, as I like to call it. The streets in Hanoi are redolent with a European air-aged ...

... is so much to see and do here and it's such an interesting city! There's a really pretty lake in the middle of the Old Quarter (where we're staying), and streets named by the product they sell (e.g. herbs, towels, buddhist altars, leather etc. etc.). ...

... ;We strolled the streets now comfortable with crossing busy streets teaming with mopeds (2 million in Hanoi). The difference in Hanoi Old Quarter in particular compared to china are that the streets are so narrow that you are only risking your life for a ...

... was wet, the weather here is noticeably cold (not compared to home), so the jumper and the hats are out. We're staying in the old quarter of the city, which is the back packer area. The streets here are small, and the traffic thick, and you have to ...

... to where the coach was waiting. We had actually driven past this coach! Bewildering. The bus takes a while to get out of Hanoi Old Quarter due to the narrow streets. The guide 'Thanh' of AST (very good tour company)jokes that we are getting a 45 minute ...

... book.  Reportedly, Hanoians are more reserved.  So I dropped all assertiveness and just received. On the border of the old quarter is a charming area called Hoan Kiem Lake.  It's similar to Green Lake in Seattle.  It was unusually ...