Overwhelmed in Hanoi

January 30, 2024

Oh man, how cold it is. So that's what 13 degrees feels like. We briefly questioned whether we had really landed in Hanoi or perhaps in Germany. We looked like zombies with our eyes red from dozing. At the airport everything went smoothly with visas and luggage. We got water and a snack before booking a grab.

The driver came immediately and picked us up. After we drove off, we had to buy a highway ticket, probably something like tolls, which he laid out for us for now. Because we didn't have any Vietnamese cash up to that point. We stopped at the nearest ATM and Nina withdrew 2 million dong. Such a strange feeling. Our driver talked to us as far as his English could go: “do you have a boyfriend?” … “yes we both have a boyfriend!”. After driving a few more meters, our driver stopped and said there was a driver change. For a moment we really wondered what kind of film we were in. Because he also wanted us to cancel the trip in the app and pay in cash. (Normally the trip is tracked and paid for via the app.) Everything seemed a bit strange to us, the new driver didn't speak a word of English. We trusted in the good and luckily arrived at our accommodation 45 minutes later. The driver saw that the trunk lid was still open, but he just drove anyway. Crazy.

A homestay. A private room in a house, with a private bathroom. This is not uncommon and cheap in Vietnam. Our host welcomed us in a friendly manner. After a quick inventory, we snuggled up in bed. It was so cold, we were completely tired and exhausted. While Ronja slept for a while, Nina dared to try out the shower. Cold. Freezing. Her shower gel had leaked into her toiletry bag, several things came together and the mood was very dark. The only thing left were the tears. We cuddled up again and at some point motivated ourselves to go out.

Hello Hanoi! What greeted us outside were busy, busy streets with lots of scooters. The horn is honked in a tour. 1000 stimuli in one minute. Everything was loud, dirty, so many smells. Nina was almost run over by a cyclist. We tried to go to a shop for a SIM card. Unsuccessful. They wanted a passport from us, unfortunately both were in the accommodation at the time. Next stop: food! It was a challenge to even find a restaurant. When the time came, however, there were no vegetarian options. We asked on and on... ultimately settling on a baguette filled with egg and some sauce, which we ate on the side of the road. This was really necessary and delicious! We had to get away from there, away from this loud city traffic. Road crossings are really stressful and bring a lot of adrenaline. We made it back to the accommodation and dug into our recently purchased chocolate. It didn't really help at all. We were overwhelmed.

Again we thought about a plan, a solution for the next few days. Ronja always manages not to despair completely, even in difficult situations. But when we couldn't decide, we turned on the heater and closed our eyes, hoping that the dreams would simply ground and guide us again.

We went into the old town again. The first thing we got was the SIM card. Immediately afterwards we both received new fleece jackets. Better mood and something against the cold! We wonder whether these are original goods. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant and ordered vegan food. It was so incredibly delicious, something so soothing for the soul! The ambience and service were also top notch. We're glad we went out again and had such a lovely evening.

“Hey please let’s buy a JBL box so we can have a better sound when we cry!”

We want to watch another comedy and will definitely fall asleep straight away.

Until tomorrow

Ronja & Nina