Back to the (big city) jungle :O (Day 90 of the world tour)

03.12.2019

The night was as expected very cold^^ Everything was fine under the blanket, but whenever a foot or arm was outside, Jonas woke up at some point because he had the feeling in his half-sleep that the two thick blankets were crushing him :O

Despite the not-so-great description, the room was super cozy. In the morning, after a small breakfast in bed (very healthy with fruit :O The peeling knife is worth it!! :D), I even dared to take a shower. For that, we had to turn on the water heater and wait for 15-20 minutes.

When I went to the bathroom barefoot, I felt very brave :p Actually, the water became warm after the specified waiting time and although it was only warm and not hot, the mirror immediately fogged up and everything in the room steamed up :D :D

We spent the rest of the morning watching YouTube under the two blankets, and I hoped that the two hours would be enough to dry my hair. Of course, the latter didn't work, but then I just put on a hat ;-)

Check-out was at 11:00 am, but the bus wouldn't leave until 1:30 pm. So we treated ourselves to a second breakfast or lunch from our host. Like yesterday, she had "improvement suggestions" for our order ^^ (rice noodles are better than "regular" noodles, for example), so we both ordered the same dish - which I thought was fair because then she only has to cook once :)

After the little appetizer, we were allowed to wait for another hour in the family living room (which is also the entrance hall and dining area for guests ;-) ) with the little heater. Grandpa turned on the news (oh no! Typhoon in the Philippines! They are still on our plan :O) and when the children came home from school, the maybe 11-year-old daughter took over the remote control. After a cheesy boy band music video, a series about snake fights followed, in which a dog barks wildly all the time :D Interesting! Watching TV with locals ;-)

At 12:30 pm, we made our way to the bus company's office. Our host explained very kindly where it is located (with a printed city map^^), gave us the address for Google Maps, and even her phone number so that we could call her in case of emergency. As a goodbye, she helped Jonas to shoulder Kalle properly and yeah. It's a pity we didn't want to stay longer because we can clearly recommend the guesthouse <3

On the way to the bus, we naturally bought some snacks (we had yesterday's snacks for breakfast today :O :D) and after a total of almost half an hour, we arrived at the "office" - a small room on the ground floor with a few wooden benches to wait on.

The lady at the reception asked us for our names, but when we said them, she didn't understand. We showed her a photo that our host had taken of us, and then everything was settled :)

Without knowing exactly when it would leave or which of the parked buses was ours, we sat down for a few minutes until we were directed to our bus - the VIP Queen Cafe. Not bad^^

As feared, it was another sleeper bus with beds. Ahh!!! But when we got on, I noticed two great things :p First, there was a toilet on board!!! And second, the dimensions were such that you could actually sit upright and not touch the bed above with your head :D

So we could travel fairly comfortably for the next six hours (with a blanket and both jackets, until it was warm enough outside and inside the bus ;-) ). We stopped twice at a bus station, where you could go to the toilet for about 20 cents, and at the second one, we even went on a "shopping tour" and each treated ourselves to a baguette with egg and herbs for less than a euro. Really delicious! :)

By the way, so that you don't have to constantly put on and take off your shoes, which you have to take off and store in a plastic bag when entering the bus, there are people at the bus stations who put a doormat and a basket of slippers in front of the bus, as we had already seen on our way to Sapa. Really convenient ;-)

While Jonas mostly listened to music or dozed off, I spent almost the entire time looking out the window. After a short time, I saw banana trees again and it was clearly a different climate zone. Even if Jonas doesn't see it quite like that, it looked like Laos to me again :p Okay, the rice fields are bigger and probably not just for personal or village use but commercially oriented, but otherwise... ^^

After the first hour, the big surprise came - we were driving on a highway :O :D :D We hadn't seen something like this since Turkey ;-)

So the ride was calm and not very bumpy. I watched the Red River on my left for hours and the huge flat rice fields oriented to it. There were green hills, sometimes low, sometimes very high, and a mix of villages and modern buildings that you would rather associate with a big city. I saw churches, cattle, and above all, many workers planting the steep slopes on the right and left of the highway to minimize erosion. A very nice ride indeed :)

Almost exactly six hours later, we actually arrived in Hanoi. We were already gently prepared for it with huge billboards, and when the city came into view, I was once again surprised by the number of vehicles, people, and tall buildings :D :D As if I had never seen a city before :p But yes, Bangkok was already over a month ago :O

The bus made several stops at the request of the passengers, but we stayed seated until the last stop - 1.7 km away from our hostel. Of course, several taxi drivers immediately approached us, almost harassing one of our European fellow passengers until he raised his voice and walked away... Oh my... We successfully shook off all the taxi drivers and decided to walk :)

The walk to the hostel was interesting as well. We were offered a rickshaw a few times, but when we said no the first time, they left us alone immediately ;-) Firstly, we walked through rather quiet streets with expensive-looking clothing stores, a Mercedes-Benz store, and banks, but already after the first turn, we saw more life on the streets.

In addition to the vehicles skillfully maneuvering around us (we are now "brave" enough to just keep walking and trust :D), there were also many people on the streets - tourists but also locals. In front of a few bars, screens were set up because the Asian Cup is currently taking place and the Vietnamese seem to be very interested in following football. A really great sight! :)

Finally, we arrived on the street that leads to our hostel. Until then, we had seen store after store with toys or souvenirs, but this particular street is completely themed for Christmas!!! :O It's about 200m long and there is Christmas decoration of all kinds on both sides. Wow!

Of course, this doesn't fully capture the meaning of Christmas, but I am positively surprised that it is even a theme here, and Jonas has already googled it and if it works out, we will be in Ho Chi Minh for Christmas, where I might even be able to go to church <3 Let's see what happens^^

Our hostel has a pretty good rating on booking.com, and the first impression was friendly as well, but it's definitely more on the "simple" side ;-) I think you get exactly what you expect for 4€/night (including breakfast) in a big city :D

Our room consists of two bunk beds, with double beds in each of them, so you can sleep here with up to 8 people :) The bathroom is practically in a "cupboard" with a very thin and translucent door, and it's maybe 1 square meter. The shower and sink have the same faucet, a shower head is directly above the toilet, so you can conveniently brush your teeth, shower, and go to the toilet - all at the same time! Very efficient ;-)

Luckily, I showered this morning - albeit only lukewarm, but still without contortions^^

After checking in (the backpacks don't all fit in the ONE locker that belongs to each double bed ;-) ), we went out to buy water. For just under a euro, we got a 6-liter bottle - finally more than those "small" 1.5-liter bottles :D :D

Since we had only eaten snacks today (and the small portion of rice for lunch at the guesthouse...), we each treated ourselves to a sandwich to go, and then we went back to the hostel.

While I'm writing this, the other four people (a French couple and two Asian friends - the fourth double bed is still free) are already in bed with the lights out, but unfortunately, they still have to endure my typing because the "common room" downstairs is even smaller than our room :p

Oh yeah - in addition to the somewhat frugal furnishings, there is also a strong smell of sewage - it's particularly bad in our entire room :( It's not pleasant, but for now, we're only here for two nights, and then we'll see :D

It doesn't feel so bad to be back in a city. We're curious to see what Hanoi looks like during the day tomorrow since it doesn't remind us of any of the other Asian cities we've seen so far (okay, there aren't many, but you still have certain ideas :D).

So, it's now 10:23 pm and "quiet time" starts at 11:00 pm :O We have to hurry and we're already tired enough :D