🇻🇳 For the first time in Vietnam: The capital Hanoi

On the evening of January 15, 2024 we landed in Hanoi at around 9 p.m. Our first stop is to the ATM for some start-up capital. Everything here is paid in Vietnamese dongs. 1€= 26,000 dongs. 🙂

The driver from the hotel is waiting outside, holding a sign with my name 👩🏼 in the air. We walk for a while to get to the hotel. It is already dark and some buildings and bridges are illuminated colorfully. Then we approach the old town...we don't know how the driver finds his way in these small, dark alleys. To us, every street initially looked the same. Then we finally arrive at the hotel and check in. We want to pay, but the man waves us away, saying: “You can still do that when checking out.”😂 We take the elevator to the third floor and are shown our room. There was little to nothing going on outside on the street and there was silence in the room. We found that nothing changes during the day. As soon as you close the windows and doors, it's quiet 😊👍🏼 cheers to the good soundproofing in Vietnam.

The next day we have sightseeing on the agenda. We also get SIM cards for 45 days in a small shop around the corner. We always had a great connection and good network across the country. We drink a coffee and walk towards Hoan Kiem Lake, past the bridge to the Confucian Temple and walk around the lake. There are people everywhere, many dressed traditionally and having their photos taken.

Our path takes us back to the old town. We get thirsty and go looking for a café, there is a lot to choose from. There are lots of small plastic stools in front of the cafés where you can sit and linger 🙃 We each have another coffee and I have a lemon-flavored soda water. On the way back we pass the St. Joseph Cathedral, a meeting point for many tourists and rickshaw drivers. We want to go back to the hotel because the first impression of Hanoi overwhelms us. The people, the lots of (crazy) traffic and the honking 😄 they are new impressions that we first have to process. We know that Vietnam is crazy, busy and loud when it comes to traffic, but once you're in the middle of it yourself, it's a different story.

In the coming days in Hanoi we will of course also go to “Train Street”. As it happened, we were immediately besieged by “sellers”. There were barriers everywhere in front of the tracks prohibiting entry. We looked around for maybe ten seconds and then we were spoken to. Two men immediately seized us. They said we were very lucky, they could take us to a café, then somewhere else (?), but we would be here on time when the train came. I don't know, we didn't understand every word, but one thing was clear: they wanted to give us some kind of tour or something. We said no and left the field.

We walked to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, past the Presidential Palace and the Quan Tanh Temple, all the way to the bridge towards the Tran Quoc Pagoda just outside Hanoi. There is no entrance fee to the pagoda, it is well worth seeing, only long clothing to cover your shoulders and knees is required.

We had our hotel room from the 15th to the 19th. Booked in January, we promptly started planning our next trip. During our stay the weather was slightly changeable. From rain, clouds, to sunshine, everything was there. We studied the weather report for the 4th calendar week and were surprised... in the north the temperatures were supposed to drop below ten degrees 😱 we were not at all prepared for low temperatures and we wanted to go to Halong Bay in Cat Ba. “Then we should do that on the weekend of January 20th and 21st. "I said to Christian, before the temperatures drop completely, then a boat tour through the bays won't be any fun anymore. ⤵️

So we booked the onward journey to Cat Ba via 12GoAsia for January 19th. with the bus company “Good Morning Cat Ba”, which by the way is an absolute recommendation. 👍🏼🙂 We booked the boat tour on site after our arrival in Cat Ba.