While in Luang Prabang we had to wait for our Vietnam visas to go thru since you have to get it in advance. It cost us $70 each for next day visa. We applied for our visas on Tuesday & picked it up the next day. Then our journey to Hanoi began...
Sitting at the bus station in front of a bus with neon lights and electronic Vietnamese music banging a young guy was sitting next to us taking bong rips. We were wondering what he was smoking and came to the conclusion it was tobacco possibly mixed with opium. Turns out Tommy Chong was the bus driver. Well what could go wrong? It was only a 24 hr bus ride to our destination. During our travels we kind of just hop in whatever vehicle is in front of us and go where these non-English speaking folks decide to take us and hope for the best. We do always make it safely.
The bus:
By 24 hr ride they mean 28. The driver wants to max out the money he can make so we stop CONSTANTLY, I would estimate approximately 18-25 stops total. The stops included more bong rips, cig breaks, peeing on the side of the road , picking up random additional passengers and occasionally food. Oh and on one stop that none of us could figure out the reason for, we peed in some local villagers backyard and sat by the road for about 30 min. Just to paint the romantic picture that was our experience.
Our passenger group included a Canadian, a Brit, 3 Americans, a couple Danish chicks, a Frenchy and a whole lot of locals.
It's really just a travel experience and you just kind of have to shrug, go with the flow, flow with the go and chalk it up simply as something you do when backpacking through SE Asia.
Anyway, we made it to Hanoi, a city rich with history, full of constant honking of scooters and taxis, excellent food and the cheapest beer you have ever had the privilege to drink. The city reminds us of San Francisco with the traffic of NYC and the grind of Seattle. We are impressed with the local's driving skills although it is stressful people watching.
The first full day in Hanoi we walked around Old Quarter (location we're staying). We passed hundreds of boutiques, hardware shops, vendors, cafes, fabric shops while dodging mopeds, cars, & pedi cab madness at the same time. We strolled around Hoem Lake, had a cup of tea & Vietnam coffee (dark, sweet, condensed milk mixture) & went to Hanoi's mega mall, Vincom Center. We also stopped to have sushi & bbq.
The weather has been pleasant to do sightseeing around the city & not be sweating profusely & miserably hot. It's kind of nice to wear pants & long sleeves. We were out & about for 6 hours. We went back to our hotel, rested & then checked out the night life.
We bumped into our fellow scuba classmate from Ko Tao, Mitch, from Germany. We were happy to see a familiar face & joined him for some $0.23 beers. The beer lady was an intense little fireball to say the least. It was a pretty neat scene, first it was the 3 of us sitting and catching up and then another American just plopped down at our table eating a sandwich, a few minutes later an Englishmen did the same, this trend continued and before we knew it our circle grew and we were all sitting, chatting and laughing the night away.
Today the weather was a little cold & rainy. It reminded us of Seattle. We got some Starbucks coffee which cost us $10 for 2 tall drinks & watched Fast & Furious 7 on this rainy day. Our drinks at Starbucks cost more than our movie tickets & snacks.
Afterwards, we took a little siesta & ate at a famous pho place near our hotel called Pho Ba 49.
Tomorrow we will check out & catch a 3.5 bus ride to Halong Bay.
Stay tuned...
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