Day 1 of Northern Vietnam Trip (Sep 24 - Oct 2, 2010) - Hanoi

I’ve read enough in books and forums that Vietnamese love to cheat money off tourists. They can come up with the most creative ways to rip tourists off. I have been most fearful of how much trouble I would get myself into.

The first thing upon arrival in Hanoi, after collecting my backpack, was to change some Vietnamese Dong. The exchange rate was 1 USD = 19,475 NVD. I gave them US$250 and they passed back a big pile of notes to me. If I hadn’t read about all the tourist traps in Vietnam, I might’ve just quickly given it a count and walked away. This time I got careful. I did my math in my head (something I haven’t done for a long time) and felt something was wrong. I counted and recounted. I had $3,868,750 NVD. I was supposed to get back $4,868,750 NVD!! I told the lady and she counted again, giving me an additional $1M. I wonder if that was just a careless mistake or if it was deliberate! If it was deliberate, that was very aggressively so. I’m glad I counted carefully or I would’ve lost one quarter of my whole trip’s spending money!

I then took the Vietnamese Airline shuttle bus to get to the Old Quarter of Hanoi. Unexpectedly, I was dropped off not at the terminus. So I was left on my own to figure out where in the city I was. It was hot and sunny, and I didn’t want to accept any of the motorcycle ride offers that was calling from everywhere from the streets. I ran back and forth a few times and finally had myself oriented. I then walked to my guesthouse and settled in.

First things first. I asked my guesthouse about the trip to Sapa and decided to join a tour because it was a lot cheaper than going on my own and looking for a guide there, and everything will be taken care of starting from the ride to the train station from my guesthouse. Then I asked about going to Haiphong and Cat Ba Island. The guesthouse didn't have any info on this route so I decided to do it on my own.

It was 2pm when the details of my two excursions were taken care of. Boy was I hungry. The guesthouse recommended a local food place around the corner for some authentic Vietnamese noodles. I was tested with my map reading skills and found the place. My second challenge was to figure out how to order. Well, what better than to smile, point, and stick the index finger up? A bowl of beef vermicelli came and it was quite good. The only thing was it wasn’t sour enough. There was no fish sauce on offer so I just ate it the way it came in.

Then I decided to take a walk around the Old Quarter. I followed the route suggested by the Lonely Planet.

First I went to the Hoan Kiem Lake, a nice lake in the middle of the city. Then I walked along some supposedly interesting, old streets in the area. Each of the streets was supposed to have a theme, or a history in the past. Some would sell silk, some would sell shoes. Some toys, some tombstones, and some temples along the way. The sights didn’t interest me. They just gave me an impression of China twenty years ago. All the temples were of Chinese influence and had Chinese characters painted on them. After walking for two hours in the streets, I was getting dizzy and irritated from all the exhaust fumes from the motorcycles and non-stop honking.

Crossing the road in Hanoi was just like crossing in China. One just has to pretend they see no cars/motorcycles coming towards them and just walk slowly ahead. I cut my walk short and went back to Hoan Kiem Lake to take refuge from the hustle and bustle of the Old Quarter.

At the lake I thought to myself that’s all I needed from Hanoi. I didn’t want any more time in Hanoi so I decided to buy tickets to the Water Puppet Show for that evening and get it over with. There was then nothing else left in Hanoi that I had to do.

I then met up with Irene, a friend from Canada whom I lost touch with for a decade. It was very nice to catch up with Irene and her friends. We had dinner together and went to the evening market for a bit of sight-seeing and shopping. I didn’t know there was an evening market in the Old Quarter so it was good that Irene took me there.

Later on I watched the Water Puppet Show which wasn't too exciting. After the show, I walked back to the guesthouse. By the time I went to bed it was 1am.

I decided I was too tired to get up for a 7am bus to Haiphong. I didn’t even know where the bus terminal was. So I would just let things be and get up whenever I got up the next morning. And I called it a night.