So Long Hong Kong - Good Morning Vietnam

Up at 4am today to take a cab out to the airport for the next leg of our journey! We left Hong Kong at 8:40am and had a great 2 hour flight to Hanoi, arriving at 9:40 local time (Hanoi is 1 hour behind Hong Kong so an extra hour gained this day! 😊). We had arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport, got through immigration and customs quite quickly, and were on the road to our hotel by 10:30. On the main highway, we noticed a few commuters driving scooters, as we got closer to the city, there were scooters EVERYWHERE! Weaving in and out of traffic, merging and turning in front of oncoming vehicles, and basically taking their lives into their own hands! Suffice it to say, this is the main mode of transportation here, and we noticed it more and more as the day went on!

Upon arrival at our hotel, we were greeted by a welcome drink of sweet tea, and some snacks, and sat down with Leo, our very gracious host. He explained the area to us, gave us maps marking down areas of interest, restaurants, shopping, etc., and also gave us an upgrade on our room and early check in! We dropped off our bags, freshened up and headed off on foot for a bit of exploring.

We walked down some side streets where we found restaurants, coffee shops and an abundance of stores selling everything from silk and cashmere to clothing, shoes and jewellery, all at bargain prices. And again, a gazillion scooters, all blowing their horns, weaving in and out to avoid cars and pedestrians, and some carrying a family of four! 😳. In the town centre, we walked around a small lake to a pagoda (which we will explore more tomorrow), and along the Main Street, where we came across a very ornate temple, different to the one in Hong Kong in that the altars were covered with fruits and food as offerings! We had a rickshaw driver follow us around for quite a while wanting us to take a tour - he even waited for us outside a coffee shop we went into and followed us again when we left!

At around 2:30 pm, we were fading, so came back to the hotel to rest, which turned into a 3 hour sleep!! We got up and ready to head out for dinner, where we ate some amazing spring rolls, noodles and won ton soup at a street cafe - once again dodging scooters driving aimlessly down the narrow alleys. There are lots of sidewalks in the area, but all are taken up by parked scooters, so we had to be careful where we walked! When we got back to the hotel, we went to the rooftop bar for a glass of wine, then back to the room to catch up on the blog and get a good nights sleep in anticipation of a busy day tomorrow! 😊Read more