[28.2.2012] Hanoi Day 1 Pt 1

Finally we made it to the Hanoi Blog... haha.. I've been meaning to get to it but i've been oh so busy..

Anyhow, I at least want to start it before officially its passed 1 year since my trip there...

So the story is that at the end of 2010, I went to Ho Chi Minh City.. all by myself and totally fell in love with the place despite the fact that 

a) I was alone

b) It was a whole other language speaking country

c) Vietnamese traffic...

But despite all that I totally fell in love with vietnam and it became the catalyst for wanderlusting and  travelling to countries where I could immerse myself.. So I came back and told my law school travel buddies Fadli and Sheba (we went to Phuket and Bali together) and then after my persistent selling to them and then after that we saw pics of Ha Lon Bay (one of the new 7 wonders of the world) .. I got a call from Sheba one day saying lets go to Hanoi!

So Hanoi it is... We booked for flights almost a year earlier and then by my sheer luck I had fixed a trial the day after the date I was supposed to come back from Hanoi... For months I had cold sweats thinking about having to go to court the day after I got back from holiday from another country... If its the last thing I do, I would like to say.. DO NOT EVER EVER EVER go on holiday before a court matter... hehe coz before court the few weeks before it is left making sure all documents are ready, submissions are ready, clients are in the country, clients know about a proceeding that they are supposed to attend and bosses are briefed and have made any necessary ammendments..bluergh...

Anyhow.. Despite all that, I survived that ordeal due to the fact that the other lawyer choked up and then there was all this drama in my life .. I wont go into anything else and lets just say I got to go to Hanoi with a clear conscience..

So off I wen to the airport at 3AM! Cause the flight out was at 650....For some reason we needed to rush there and off we went.... 

As I arrived at LCCT airport, I met up with Fadli and Sheba and made all the necessary preparations (activating all credit cards, atm cards for overseas usage ) and had a light breakfast at the Old Town White Coffee shop there and it kind of pissed me off as not all of our orders were delivered.. I think there was a drink and side order left... 

Anyhow afterwards we got on the flight and took the 3 and half hour flight to Hanoi.... and came out in Hanoi Airport...   

One thing I forgot to mention was that I was dumb... D. U. M. B... DUMB! I saw that Fadli and Sheba were wearing their jackets but I assumed that it was cause it was 3 am at the airport and they were cold... Then when we were all lining up at passport control after arriving in Vietnam, I realised hey everyone else was wearing jackets... I asked Fadli who went eh you dont know that they have mild cold weather here? ... hahaha I totally forgot that Vietnam South and Vietnam North is two different places at different times of the year and all I brought was shirts and jeans and shorts.. (I EVEN HAD SHORTS!)... I remembered as we were waiting for our bags at the carrousel, the ground crew kept on opening and closing the doors to let in big items like golf clubs which couldnt come in through the carroussel... and the gusts of wind kept on hitting me hard!Suddenly I was worried.. a sudden Oh Sh*t moment was for me there.. hehe but then as we went outside looking for the driver who was supposed to pick us up, I didnt feel that bad.. it wasnt that cold, just mildly so..Little did I know...

view from airport arrival/pick up

Afterwards, the driver from the hotel picked us up and took us to the hotel.. We checked into the Holiday Diamond Hotel and according to Sheba, this was the friendliest hotel as reported by Tripadvisor and true enough they were really helpful... (I have learned over the years from our numerous travels together that always trust Sheba's travel planning.. she will plan everything for you and all you have to do is just go with the flow... ) As we had arrived very early, they invited us to have breakfast... and lesson number one about vietnam is that it was a former french colony.. and being a former french colony, they have great pastry skills and the thing you should savour on is the BREAD..... 

In Malaysia, you get those almost yard long breads which are hard as hell and not that tasty (unless eaten with a stew)... but in Vietnam, you get those types of bread but which are damn soft and pleasant to eat...

After enjoying the breads and eggs and jam  (only things I dared to eat due to halal issue), we were led into our room..

One thing I love about Vietnamese hotels is that they are friendly, the rooms are always cozy and quite clean and then theres always a PC in the rooms.. This is actually to help foreigners who are used to social media and the interned as certain social media like Facebook were banned so some hotels have changed their IP address to allow people to use their facebook accounts and what nots... 

I remembered when I was in Ho Chi Minh I couldnt access most of the things I wanted to access cause it was blocked but my hotel rooms were allowed access... It was only after my friend who is working there told me about it that I understood why... Anyhow.. this going around thing also caused soo much problems for my facebook, gmail and other accounts that they insisted I change my passwords and until now I have problems trying to log in cause I cant remember which password is which..

Afterwards, we went looking for our first necessary thing there... which was to book the cruise for the Ha Lon Bay tours...

Sheba had done the research and found out some reputable names for cruises and also some of the scams that were run by the people there...

Some of the scams come in the form of nice glossy pictures of the Junks (the boats) and when they pick u up, its a total shi*t hole.. 

Anyhow we asked our Hotel reception for help and they gave us the three different cruises that they recommended and we set about haggling and negotiating and ended up with A-Class cruises..

After that was settled, all we had to do was to visit the town and wait for the bus the next day.. hehe...

That will be in part 2. Till then!