Halong Bay to Hanoi by Arushi

We were picked up from Halong Bay by a smiley Haiun and started the 3 hour journey to Hanoi, giving us plenty of time to catch up on the blog, relax, or in dad’s case, have a little snooze (“I’m having a bit of me time!”)

On arrival to Hanoi, we checked into a hotel that Sunny had arranged for us for the few hours we would spend in Hanoi, giving us a space to rearrange the packing, shower, or have another snooze. We set off around 2.30 in search of some food, stopping at a market to purchase some “North Face” trousers for Millen and jacket for dad, totalling at around £17 from the funniest sweet old happy lady, who offered the “cheaper, cheaper” prices as she repeated to us on several occasions.

We arrived at Hanoi Coffee station for a pick me up, a cafe tucked in a small alleyway that was hard to spot from the street as it was located above another shop. We entered the cafe to find a coffee class was just ending (that would have been right up dad’s street!) and found a table for 5. The menu was a very typical western brunch, and we ordered a range of food including avacado toast, banana bread, granola as well as some smoothies and coffees (apparently the egg coffee was delicious - dad even requested the recipe to try at home!). We also purchased some of their yummy homemade peanut butter to bring back home with us (if it isn’t already finished by then…)

Satisfied, we then walked back to the hotel, stopping at a shop called Tiredcity, a cool place selling various prints on different items, such as postcards, pins and t-shirts. We bought a print as a memory of Hanoi and then set off on our merry way.

We then had about half an hour to relax and rest before leaving for Hanoi train station.Read more