Day 1 of Vietnam @ Hanoi

Yen Lin and I landed Noi Bai International Airport on time @ 8.30am local time.

First impression is good because AirAsia's flight don't require us to take the stairs out from the plane. Had the luxury of the "connector". After exiting the custom, we looked for tourist counter which surprisingly many that have the "free map" signboards but in actual there isn't any! English is a BIG issue here in Hanoi. 

We couldn't figure out where to take the bus to "old-quarter" that cost VND10,000 per person so we end up taking the airport-bus that cost us VND40,000 per person. This also, we had difficulties trying to get back the VND100,000 from the bus-driver who kept ignoring us. Initially, he scammed  us by telling us the bus is leaving and get us to board it quickly but in actual he wanted it fully-occupied before departing. The journey took us about 1hour.

We stopped for something to eat once we get down the bus. We decided to get some light food at the "kaki-lima"(5-foot walk-way) where we see other people also eating. No harm blending in the crowd despite it's very obvious Yen Lin and me are tourists as I was lugging my luggage along the street. We ordered a plate of 'bahn-ram-it'(from Hue) to share. Turns out to be crackers, some sticky-kueh texture and dried shrimps-floss. Taste interesting for we are hungry. Funny, everyone here eat on low tables & stools.

The bus agent said we just need to walk 5-10minutes to reach our hotel from the stop the bus let us down. Unfotunately, it took us more than 40minutes and me with my luggage; I almost give-up!! Yen Lin was very patience with my slowness and she complimented that the people that we asked for direction were helpful and did not mis-directed us.

An Hung Hotel is ok. We were welcomed with smiles, cold towels and cold drinks.

After putting the luggage, we head out to get our lunch that we almost forgotten due to our exhaustion of walking in search of our hotel. We tried the food-street near the hotel. BBQ-pork-noodle is yummy!! Unfortunately, we were so exhausted that we forgotten our camera too. The fried-beancurd noodle is rather plain. We ordered sugarcane drink and it tasted different. It has a natural-limey taste to it. We stopped to buy my favourite green-tea drink that I saw earlier while walking on the street in search of the hotel and Yen Lin got herself a big bottle of mineral water.

We returned to hotel. Showered and took 1.5hours of nap. By 4pm, we get ready to go out for our shops-hopping before the night market that starts at 7.30pm. We saw "beca"(trishaw) so was tempted and it was a good choice of transport as the trishaw-man bring us to almost every single street. And one will noticed that each street sells different specialty items. For example, one street sells all coffee. Another street sells all bamboo and another street sells all latterns and so on.

We even went around the Hoan Kiem Lake. Think the trishaw-man wanted to rest for a while so he asked us to go inside a temple by the lake and we spend some time taking pictures and wondering what's his intention. We returned to our trishaw-ride and after more than 1hour, we were concerned about the charges and somehow, the trishaw-man just don't stop; just continue street after street. Think; this is a very common scam by "trishaw-men" to take more hours than agreed. We decided to request the trishaw to stop us near a food-street and paid for our 1.5hours ride; VND200,000.

Ordered a bowl of phở gà (chicken noodle soup) for VND35,000. But the stall man is not too friendly and don't speak English. We walked back to the lake on foot as the Cho Dem Dong Xuan night market is not ready yet.

Tried to buy ice cream at the lake but no english speaking seller so at the end, we cannot enjoy ice cream or even an ice-drink like the rest of the passerby.

Night market was nothing interesting! But, we picked a cup of Chè (sweet beverage/dessert soup) that have jackfruit, black-glutinious rice, sago, coconut-milk and jellies. Simply-sweety-refreshingly-cool!! :P

Still feeling hungry so had a beef-kebab for VND25,000 with Yen Lin sharing it half with me. Very thirsty so bought 2 glasses of sugarcane for us each. Once we got back to hotel, I still felt very thirsty so I finished the green-tea drink that I like. Enjoyed 3 korean dramas before I fall asleep...