I walked towards some seats and set my bag down on the ground. There was a Japanese guy who I played staring games with who was standing beside me and then he aked if I was Justin, and we realized who eachother was. Iwao was my new travel buddy. He had been traveling with my friend rob in japan. Rob was joining us later in the evening but iwaos flight and mine arrived at the same time around 4pm so we left the airport together to check out the city.
Getting a cab at the airport was pretty dodgy I'm not gonna lie. So many cabbies approaching from everywhere trying to get us to use their service. We had read that many of them try to rip you off by taking you to fake hotels or driving you out to the middle of nowhere. We eventually picked a cab that looked safe and negotiated a ride into town for 13USD.
We got in and the cabbie was off to Hanoi. I thought that the airport was only max 15 min from town, so once we had been driving for 30 min I started getting a bit nervous. To add to my anxiety, my gps for some reason wasn't working so I was freaked out to say the least. Thankfully after about 45min we arrived in the heart of Hanoi city at the entrance to the Blue Paradise Hotel.
This place had been highly recommended on trip advisor and I could see why. When we pulled up a bag boy grabbed all our things and put them inside. The desk clerk was very friendly and the hotel only coated 34USD for the night split between 3 people.
The room was quite large and had 2 king size beds. Iwao and I dropped our stuff off and then headed out to check out the city. By this time it was maybe 6pm and it was now dark outside.
The first thing we noticed was that there is non stop honking and generally it's chaos on the narrow streets. I thought traffic was crazy in Taiwan but they rarely even have traffic lights here. Even at large 5 point intersections!
I had plotted a walking route from our hotel to vega travel, our tour agency, the night before bccause we needed to pay for our tours. It was surprisingly easy to find the place and we fit ourselves paid up quickly.
We now had a few hours to kill before having to pick up rob at the airport so we decided to just walk around the area and soak up the Vietnamese vibe!
I tell ya, the vibe was great :) crazy bustling and honking traffic with locals wearing straw hats and carrying straw baskets on their back or balanced along a beam that they have propped on their shoulder.
I bought a banana from a local for 5 grand dong (25cents) and in exchange we got to take a photo looking like a local.
We wandered around the bustling streets for a while until we came across an outdoor food court. It looked pretty sketch and dirty but there were many people eating there so we thought we'd give it a chance. I ordered the beef on fried noodles and a local Hanoi beer.
When the food came it started with a fresh salad with no dressing but was absolutely delicious. It had cilantro, mint, basil, and some sort of lettuce. It also came with this cucumber salad in a fish and vinegar sauce.
The main course came next and it was delicious. The noodles were nice and crispy and the sauce was tasty. The best part was the whole meal plus the beer was only $2.50.
We then continued wandering for a while, making our way to what seemed to be the main night life area. There is a large man made lake and many fancy restaruants in close proximity to one another. The way the buildings are set up actually reminded me of English Bay and the Davie and Denman street crossing in downtown Vancouver.
Iwao and I stopped at a place called "Yummy" for some drinks; killing some time before having to head to the airport. Iwao ordered a mango smoothie and I ordered a coconut and tapioca jelly drink that was served in a coconut. It tasted great! And I had a spoon for carving off the coconut flesh inside. The drink was $2 I think. So you could tell this was the more "expensive" area of town.
It was nearing 10pm so we walked back to our hotel where we had a private car arranged earlier to pick us up and take us to the airport. We arrived at the airport around quarter to eleven and headed inside the arrivals area. There we saw Rob waiting for us! (Rob is my good friend from university) I'm glad it was so easy to find him. We said our hellos and got back into the private car and drove back into town.
By the time we arrived back it must have been close to midnight and everything was closed. We checked Rob into the hotel and then headed to sleep.
