Golden Sun Hotel Hanoi

We are back in Hanoi for a couple of days before heading off to Sapa. The weather is still very gloomy but it has not really rained significantly and we are enjoying pottering around the old quarter. One thing we noticed is that they don't use the pavements here for walking on! They either extend the shops outwards, use the pavement area for preparing and eating food or, mostly, use it for parking their motor bikes and scooters!! Pedestrians have to walk in the road! Definitely getting to lik...

The last of five overnight trains in Vietnam took us back into Hanoi, arriving at just after 05h00 ! We had arranged with our hotel to be picked up and it was welcoming to have someone waiting with name displayed on the platform. Room not available until after 9 so had time to upload the photos from Sapa on one of the hotel's free computers! Just one day in Hanoi this time, before heading off to Bangkok the following morning. Wandered round the old part of town checking out some shops and pic...

We arrived in Hanoi by plane from Siem Reap and were greeted with temperatures of around 15 degrees - bliss! So, donning jumpers, scarf and gloves (E) and jumper (B) we headed out of the hotel into the first sub-25 degree temperatures we've had since mountain tops in NZ. Our hotel was in the Old Town which is the main place of interest for the tourists. It was very interesting wandering around the old streets and markets seeing areas that have remained largely unchanged over the last few hund...

We finally made it to Hanoi at around 6:30PM. A little bit nervous going through customs, they now have IR camera to check everyones core temperature to see if anyone us having a fever or cold. But I also heard they would just give you a hard time to get some money. But actually things went very smooth, we all got through. Everyone got there luggage and we all entered the city of Hanoi... We are finally here...

The 11 hour plane flight to Tokyo wasn't so bad. We flew American Airlines - which turned out to be comfortable and were pretty good about watching our sleeping and eating so that we would not have jet lag when we arrived in Vietnam. So we arrive in Japan - tried the best rice "cake" sweets we have ever had and immediately boarded a plane to Hanoi. We\ had a 2 hour lay over in Japan and the effects of crossing the international date line despite the "No Jet Lag" homeopathic pills leaves us a ...

Sydney to Hanoi

It's hard to be unbiased about Hanoi, since A2 hates it and B2 loves it. So, we'll try to describe both sides of the equation for our first glimpse of Vietnam. We read about all the airport scams of drivers taking you to a copy-cat-like hotels, so we pre-booked a reputable hotel and got a pick-up from the airport via the hotel. The traffic was fierce, with cars, buses, motorbikes and bicycles all passing and weaving like mad. Our driver had definitely been a former Formula 1 race car driver -...

Despite a delayed take-off, the flight went well and we picked up our luggage quickly. I have to be careful as there seem to be a lot of backpacks which resemble mine very closely. One time, I was just picking up my bag from the luggage belt when a man came and swooped it out of my hand, just in front of me. Of course, I then realised that it wasn't my bag at all and hope he didn't think I was trying to steal it! We were met by the driver from our hotel as we'd booked online through hostelwor...

We arrived in Hanoi at 4:30 am. We looked around for our driver that is going to pick us up at both exits and all around the parking lot, but we do not see one. So, we hired a taxi and he brought us to Hang Hanh Street which looks like a completely deserted alley at 5:00 am. The driver stopped by Golden Lake and motioned to us that we were here. We do not see our hotel and Bill got out of the cab and started walking down the street. Finally, the driver asks the bell hop next door who tells hi...

We woke up at 6 am when the junk started up. We had breakfast at 7 am - omelettes with chives, bacon, cucumber, tomato, bread, cheese, not cheese (butter), jam, pears, bananas and tea. We went to a floating village and began our kayaking tour. We were in an area where there were few boats and junks and it was incredible. The scenery is so beautiful. It was calm and a bit sunny. We paddle around and under some of the karst hills. My arms and shoulders are screaming, man I am out of shape! I am...