A Trip to Hanoi Vietnam
January 14th, 2007Today I arrived back home in Bangkok after a week of adventure in and around Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. I decided to go to Vietnam for a number of reasons, firstly, I had never been there before, secondly, Hanoi is only an hour and a half from Bangkok by plane, and thirdly, I have read so much information and seen so many war movies about Vietnam, I wanted to go check it out for myself and see what it’s really like. My trip was certainly full of surprises from the moment I stepped off the plane but this is nothing new to those familiar with traveling around South East Asia. My general rule of thumb when traveling in Asia is don’t be too concerned when things don’t work out the way you planned as they might even work out better in the long run. Or maybe not but that’s part of an Asian adventure.
After arriving at Hanoi International Airport and clearing customs I headed out to the arrival area expecting to see a driver, from the hotel I had booked over the internet, holding a card with my name on it. I saw a bunch of guys holding cards but none with my name. I waited for about 15 minutes and nobody arrived for me. I decided to turn on my mobile phone and was happy to see that it was working and with a full signal. The strange thing though was when I rang the phone number of the hotel I had booked wondering where my driver was, there was a recorded message saying the phone number was no longer in service. I though this was odd so I asked someone at the information booth if she could call the number from her phone. She did and she got the same response. While contemplating my options at 10pm I noticed a Vietnamese guy running wildly into the airport terminal. Lucky for me this was my driver. Puffing and coughing he gave me a long spiel in Vietnamese, I’m assuming he was telling me the reason he was late, but since I don’t speak Vietnamese I’ll never know. We spent the next 45 minutes or so driving along an extremely long and very straight road into the capital Hanoi. On arrival at the wrong hotel I tried to explain with hand signals that this was not the hotel I had booked. Eventually he got out of the car and went inside. Soon after another Vietnamese man opened the car door and asked “Mr Hill?” “Yes, that’s me”, at last we seemed to be getting somewhere I thought. Next came the bad news.
He proceeded to tell me that the hotel I had booked online and for which I had a copy of the written conformation in my hand was no longer in business. This didn’t sound good for me at 11pm in a strange city for the first time but certainly explained why the phone number I called was no longer in service. He told me he was looking for another room for me at one of the other hotels within his group. There wasn’t a great deal I could do so I sat down and waited for the next update. It was at this stage I looked around the foyer of this hotel and noticed a bunch of other people being told the same news I had just been given, when I noticed a guy sitting across from me laughing. As he noticed he had my attention he asked if was having trouble getting a room? Yes, I told him I had booked a room online but apparently that hotel no longer existed. Laughing out loudly now, he explained that he had the same problem when he arrived having also booked his room through the same online booking service I had used. He said he booked another hotel but they brought him to the same place they had brought me from the airport and told him the hotel he had booked was completely full although he also had a written conformation on his room. He had arrived a few days earlier and said although there had been an initial mix up they eventually got him a room at another hotel for the first night, then brought him to the hotel we were currently talking in and he would be staying here for the rest of his trip. While we were talking someone came over and said they had found me a room and there was a driver out the front waiting to take me there. We were there in no time and on arrival the hotel looked ok. I was told if I liked this hotel I could stay here for the duration of my trip and it would be the same charge. I had booked a deluxe room with a window and balcony and the room they gave me in the new hotel was exactly like what I had booked so although there was a bit of an initial mix up everything now seemed ok. Although I woke quite early to the sound of car and motorbike horns blasting away and couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to change my balcony room at the front of the hotel to a smaller and much quieter room at the back of the hotel and stayed there for the remainder of my holiday.
The first morning I went down for breakfast I was incredibly hungry as I hadn’t eaten much the previous day and was looking forward to the “breakfast included” that came with my hotel room. I have had some amazing breakfasts at hotels throughout Asia but this was certainly not one of them. I’m not sure why the guy from the kitchen even bothered to hand me the menu when after I told him what I’d like he told me nothing I wanted was available and the only thing I could get was beef and noodles. Ok then I’ll take the beef and noodles. I quickly chomped on the tiny piece of beef on top of the noodles only to realize after skimming through the bowl that there was no more beef, only flavorless noodles in water. After a couple more failed attempts at the “breakfast included” I decided to eat my breakfast elsewhere.
Hanoi is in Northern Vietnam and has an official population of around 4 million, although unofficially it could be millions more. It is a relatively small city geographically but it is jam packed with people. In the old quarter of Hanoi, often described as the Paris of the 1920’s due to the influence of old French architecture and narrow streets, you really need to remain alert as the traffic, mostly small motorbikes, moves like a swarm of bees and becomes almost a bit dangerous at times as pedestrians and biker riders struggle not to collide. I thought the traffic in Bangkok was intense but Hanoi takes traffic levels a step further. The continuous stream of noise coming from car and motorbike horns never lets up. I took one short trip in a taxi and I’m sure of the 10 minutes I spent in the car, the driver had his hand implanted on the car horn for at least 9 minutes of that time. I was thinking after the first minute, this must not only get annoying for the people on the street listening to this infernal racket but also for the driver. I tried to ask him about it bet he either didn’t hear me over the sound of his own car horn or he was deaf from years of working the streets of Hanoi.
I took a walk around the scenic Hoan Kiem Lake in the middle of the city and although surrounded by heavy traffic it was quite peaceful and relaxing to walk under and through the many trees and flower gardens spread around the lake. At one end of the lake visitors can walk along an old Chinese style, ancient looking, red bridge onto a small island with a Buddhist temple and a life size monument of a giant turtle who once lived in Hoan Kiem Lake. This spot made for some great photo opportunities of Hanoi.
Just across the street from Hoan Kiem Lake is the world famous Thang Long Water Puppets Theater. This show of marionette water puppets originating in France over a century ago is a must see for anyone traveling to Hanoi. The show itself runs for an hour about 5 times per day starting in the mid afternoon. The show includes a number of exciting and hilarious mini performances by a number of colorful puppets being worked in the water by hidden puppeteers. A small live band of Vietnamese playing traditional instruments accompanied by singing makes this a show to remember and caused a standing ovation from the packed house at the end of the show. For an entry fee of just over $1 it’s an absolute bargain and well worth your time.
A trip to the Vietnam Military History Museum was exactly what I was hoping to do and was not disappointed. The museum features a wide range of artifacts dating back through Vietnams turbulent past and I particularly enjoyed looking at a number of old fighter planes, tanks and an enormous United States military helicopter complete with all the instruments and weapons of war like huge machine guns mounted at the windows. In the middle of the museum was a giant tower with an immense Vietnamese communist flag blowing in the wind.
I decided to take a day trip to Halong Bay and this turned out to be the highlight of my trip to Vietnam. Halong Bay is situated on the coast about 3 hours drive away from Hanoi. We traveled in a mini bus through the relatively flat country side of Northern Vietnam and arrived right on time to catch an old but quite large wooden boat out into the amazingly beautiful bay. As we departed the pier the sky looked ominous and foggy and I was wondering if the poor weather would detract from the scenery, however once we arrived into the middle of the bay the clouds seemed to dissipate and the hundreds of towering islands surrounding the boat looked absolutely brilliant. This was another fantastic location to take photos from all angles. Our very knowledgeable guide “Vu” explained how this area of Vietnam had largely remained a secret up until about 15 years ago when a stranded fisherman got washed ashore and stumbled upon a giant limestone cave inside one of the islands in 1992, ever since tourists have begun trickling in each year to explore this vast and immaculate landscape. I must say standing on the boat after having a glorious seafood lunch in the middle of this pristine bay, I was thinking this is one of the most beautiful places I had ever been.
Just as I was admiring the view a small boat pulled up alongside our big boat and then Vu asked if anyone was interested in taking a cave tour. I certainly was so I jumped onto the low, flat, seat less boat and headed with a handful of other tourists towards the islands when all of a sudden I noticed a small boat sized hole appear at water level under one of the towering islands. We headed for the cave and to my surprise we channeled our way right into the huge interior bay of this colossal island. I had no idea from looking at this particular island from a distance that the interior of the island was hollow and housed a mini inner lake. From this island we cruised through a number of other caves only to reveal more of these vast inner lakes inside gigantic mountainous islands soaring into the sky.
After we arrived back on the main boat we headed around more and more islands covered with stunning, jagged rock formations till we arrived at the shoreline below entrance to the limestone caves. I can see why no one had discovered these caves up until quite recently, the entrance was half way up a tree covered mountain and completely hidden from view. I had no idea what to expect but was completely blown away once I walked inside. These caves were almost immeasurable, it was the size of an enormous sports stadium in there, with marvelous stalagmite and stalactite formations coming from everywhere. Colored lights were scattered through the crevices to highlight the landscape. I was more than impressed and managed to snap off some great photos. We exited the caves from a man made hole which opened onto a wonderful view from high on the island overlooking a gorgeous sun drenched bay. After buying a souvenir t-shirt I made my way back to the boat for the trip back to the port. We hopped back on the bus and were back in Hanoi at about 7pm and this was an experience I’m sure to remember and would highly recommend to anyone else who visits Hanoi.
The rest of the time I did a bit of shopping, eating and strolling around taking in the local sites and culture. Vietnam is incredibly cheap for everything, food, clothes, shoes, accommodation and transport, I found it to be even cheaper than Cambodia and Thailand. Although in Vietnam you eat Vietnamese food or you don’t eat at all. I noticed there was very limited options for food and being a generally big eater, I would have starved if I had have stayed there much longer. The one thing I did notice was there are very few overweight Vietnamese people, in fact the only oversize people I saw were tourists. In Hanoi there is not one single international fast food chain restaurant like KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks, 7eleven or any others. I don’t know if this is because Vietnam is a communist country or they simply don’t want those multinational companies there, in any case it certainly doesn’t seem to be hurting them.
One more thing I’d like to add is I was told before I arrived in Vietnam that the Vietnamese people prefer US dollars to their own currency, the Dong, this is not entirely true. Although most places will accept US dollars like hotels and paying for guided tours like my trip to Halong Bay and many shops within the tourist areas, many of the smaller shops, stalls and street markets actually prefer the Dong as it’s the currency they mostly use when dealing with their own people. I found on some of the back streets when I wanted to buy a bottle of water or a bowl of noodles that some places wouldn’t accept US dollars. For this reason it is necessary to carry a mixture of both currencies but don’t get caught with too many Dong in your pocket when you leave Vietnam as other countries see very little value in the Dong and may not convert it back to your currency of choice.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Hanoi even though I had a minor mix up with the hotel when I arrived but that all worked out ok in the end. I saw everything I wanted to see in just under a week and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend taking a vacation to Hanoi. For me it is only a short trip from Bangkok but anyone coming from farther abroad who hadn’t previously been to South East Asia before I’d suggest spending no more than 3-4 days in Hanoi and then traveling on to other destinations either in Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand. There is a multitude of destinations and options available when traveling in this part of the world and I look forward to exploring more of them in the years to come. I hope you have enjoyed this brief review of Hanoi and wish you the best of luck on your adventures abroad.
If you find this site helpful, please leave a donation for John
Other Related Posts:-
February 27th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Sounds like you had an awesome adventure. Those islands and caves sound incredible. I am going to give this article to my husband, a Viet Name vet, so that he can replace bad memories with the images in your article.
Here from Carnival of the Cities.