I don't really know where to start. So, let me just say this first...
What a fucking trip.
We got a good deal on Nok Air, so I agreed with two of my colleagues (all girls) to go to Hanoi for 3 days.
We had booked a hotel (40 USD) and airport pickup service (12 USD) well in advance. When we landed at Noi Bai airport as scheduled, there was no one to pick us up. Strange town, strange people, strange language! After a while we decided to grab a taxi to the hotel ourselves.
The taxi we got from the airport agreed on 12 USD flat rate from the airport to the hotel. I had my guard up, having read so many stories about scams in Hanoi. When the taxi passed a toll-booth looking thingy, we saw his company (yes, he had a company!) paid something like 10,000 VND to someone before reaching the booth. But didn't pay anything at the booth.
He asked us how much we were paying the hotel, and one of us told him we hadn't paid yet. And he asked again how much, so I lied and told him 29 USD. He exclaimed "Expensive!" and started going on about 10 USD hotels, etc etc. None of his business really if we wanted safety and comfort.
And he finally parked in front of the hotel (I think it was), and before we could get out, a guy opened the taxi and said "You've booked a room right? Sorry, the hotel is full now. But I will tell the taxi driver to take to another hotel of us with the same quality and same price. It's not too far. It's also in town."
I wasn't too sure, but this hotel does have another branch.
And off we went.
The taxi driver dropped us at some sort of hotel (it's actually a travel agent with rooms upstairs). When I gave him 12 USD, he started making a scene and showed me a A4 size paper - all in Vietnamese language with "300,000 VND" on it. He demanded we paid this 300,000 VND also (approx 18.75 USD) as it was "government fee", referring to the toll-booth looking thingy.
Government fee my arse.
I asked him how come the toll booth fee was higher than the actual taxi fare. He didn't answer, but started making a scene again that we had to pay. Then, we told him we would look at the room first and would come back to deal with him shortly.
The room was ok. And the hotel receptionist said "So that hotel charged you 29 USD right? We'll charge the same rate."
So, how come you knew they were charging us 29 USD then? And it wasn't even the right amount!
We negotiated the price down, and done at 25 USD, including breakfast. And they confirmed they opened 24/7, e.g. not going to lock us out if we came back late.
And we went down to the taxi driver again. We decided to pay to end this hoo-ha as it's a bloody waste of time. We gave him 300,000 VND with the "take it or leave it" remark. He took it while still complaining and drove off. I suspect the 300,000 VND thingy was in fact the car tax for the whole year. So, if you are sure you are safe from them, tell your taxi driver to fuck off.
We got changed and came down stairs to ask about one day tour to Halong Bay that we wanted to go the next day. The same receptionist quoted us 25 USD for ordinary tour and lunch. We negotiated down to 23 USD and couldn't be bothered to negotiate further.
It was a join tour (16 pax) and it shouldn't cost you more than 20 USD. So, again, if you are sure you are safe from them, tell them to fuck off. Or go to another travel agent. Someone will definitely start from USD and you can probably get it at 16 - 18 USD.
After paying yet another overpriced tour, we went out to explore the city. Only took us 3 and half hours to get all this shit done.
Hanoi was very noisy. There were many many motorbikes. And everyone seemed to be going at the car/bike horn all the time. Madness.
We walked around for a bit (with a Thai older man we met at the hotel) and we got rid of him when we got annoyed. He was quite strange.
Anyway... so while we were making our way back to the hotel, we spotted a pub we had walked past earlier (and there were a few cute men hanging out there) so we went in for a cold one. It's called Le Pub.
My cold one cost 16,000 VND (or 1 USD). Pho cost 20,000 VND here (7,000 VND on the street, but it wasn't very comfortable to sit).
When we walked into the hotel, we saw the taxi driver there chatting away with the hotel boys.
Cheeky bastard.
So, they were in it all together.
Anyway... we got some rest as it was quite cold for us, it was a long day, and we had to get up early for the Halong Bay trip.
We went down the next morning around 7.30 AM for breakfast. Some dodgy french bread, butter and jam, and coffee or tea.
While waiting for the van to pick us up, we took a look around the area.
And the van finally turned up. So, we started our (approx) 3 hours journey to Halong harbour.
The van stopped for 20 minutes at a place where you could buy (overpriced) souvenir.
And not too long, we arrived at Halong harbour. At long fucking last.
There were hundreds of boats here, heading to Halong Bay daily. Here, your tour guide will give you a ticket which you have to keep on you. They will check this ticket again at the cave. The ticket is included in the tour price.
It was quite an adventurous walking through another boat, and hopping on the next one, trying not to fall off. Take your rucksake if you have stuff with you. Even if it was just a bloody book. Oh, and DO take your own drinks. It was expensive on the boat.
When everyone was ready, our driver started engine, bumping and pushing other boats to get out. And we were on the way to Halong Bay.
..... and no sign of lunch yet. Everyone was starving. We were wondering why they were not serving lunch yet. After 45 minutes into the journey, we knew why.
They stopped here, trying to sell you some fresh seafood. Errm.. very fresh.
These buggers cost 200,000 VND per kilo. That's 12.5 USD. They were funny looking. And a few of them were so big they would take up the whole table after they were cooked.
No, thanks.
After a long while, the boat started moving again. And not long, lunch was served!! Yippee!!
There were also two dishes (fish and.. I forgot) after this, but we were too hungry to wait. So, no pics of them.
Stomach was full and we were happy again so we started enjoying the scenery in Halong Bay.
Kind of. I think the southern of Thailand is more beautiful.
Next stop was a cave. They did it nicely for tourists.
Let's take a look inside.
Your tour guide will tell you all the stories about it. Their accent might be a bit difficult to understand, though.
After the cave, the boat made her way to Cat Ba island to drop people who were staying the night in Halong Bay off. The rest went back with the boat to Halong harbour and took a van back to Hanoi. We arrived back in Hanoi around 8.30PM.
Knackered.
But we continued our journey and went to the night market.
It's located on Hang Dao street, and go all the way from Hoan Kiem Lake to Dong Xuan Market. Lots of cheap stuff you can get as souvenir and this is the best place to buy. But you have to be a bit patient, as the Vietnamese like to push their way. They probably don't even realise they do it. I mean.. all of them. We got pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed. Until we had enough, and decided to go back get some rest.
The last day, we got our tickets for the Water Puppet at 2:45 PM. They do have an extra round on Sundays at 9.30 AM.
As it was our last day, we decided to go for a proper breakfast elsewhere. And here it is...
This one cost 25,000 VND, and the tea cost 10,000 VND. That's about 2.19 USD in total.
After breakfast was shopping time. Around Hoan Kiem Lake, there were thousands of shops. Very good prices for shoes, boots, and bags. I was more interested in the Huc Bridge over Hoan Kiem Lake.
Then, we went back to hotel to check out. And got on cyclos for an hour tour. They asked for 5 USD per hour. But we got the price down to 3 USD. You can try for 2 USD as many people got it at that price.
Shophouses in Hanoi
When an hour was up, we got something to eat, and headed to the Water Puppet Theatre. The tickets are 20,000 and 40,000 VND. Though they write they charge 15,000 VND for photographs during show, and 75,000 VND for video, no one bothers to pay or to ask someone to pay.
The show takes about 50 minutes, I think.
After the Water Puppet, we walked around a little bit more and got back to hotel. We got a taxi to the airport via the hotel we stayed at 14 USD. And we made the guy promise us there would be no fucking extra fees this time. He did. So, although the fee was a little higher than it was supposed to be, we were okay with it.
Lots of people flying out. Most of them were Thai. And we had a pleasant journey home.
Oh how I missed civilisation.
More pics from this trip are here.
