Hanoi
Trip Start
Aug 09, 2008
1
3
13
Trip End
Sep 10, 2008
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Thursday, August 14, 2008
We first arrived in Hanoi by minibus and were taken to the hotel we had booked. As we were about to walk in two people came out and said "whatever you do, don't stay in that hotel!" When we asked why not they explained that the manager had become really aggressive when they had hesitated over staying. We thought it's better to be safe than sorry so walked on to the place where Nick had stayed before with Ahmad. This new place was really nice and we got given a beautiful room for $20 a night. However, at breakfast this morning we were asked about tours and as we hesitated about going on one with them (the LP says not to book tours through guesthouses) we were told that we had to move out of the room and go into a smaller room with no window for the same price, as someone else had booked the room before us. Strange, how before we had been able to stay for two nights and now suddenly the room was booked! So we've moved into the hotel next door which is a good room too but on the 5th floor, and with the heat and our bags it's pretty tiring!
Anyway, today we wandered around and went to the Ngoc Son Temple in the middle of the Hoan Kiem Lake. It was very beautiful and relaxing, a small island with lots of trees and an embalmed giant tortoise! It cost 10p or 3000 dong to go in, amazing! After that we had lunch and did some research on travelling around Vietnam, particularly to Halong Bay, Sapa and down to Hue. It turns out that it's probably better to get a bus to Hue instead of flying because the plane leaves at 7.30pm and the bus leaves at 9pm so we'd only be losing an evening and having to pay for a night's accomodation if we fly. The bus we can take has reclining seats which become beds!
I've bought five scarves here already - they're just so beautiful and cheap! I bought two wollen ones (plain - red and cream) for $6 and three patterned ones for $15. I've been so self-restrained though, everything here is wonderful. I'm on the hunt for a bag at the moment. Any requests?
Tomorrow we've got one more day in Hanoi and then hopefully we'll be able to get to Halong Bay on the 16th and stay two nights for my birthday!
Lots of love xxxx
PS. Apologies about the photos, I didn't manage to upload them so will have to show you at home.
