Advertisement
Published: October 13th 2010
Edit Blog Post
As we entered Vietnam for the first time we knew that your first ride from the airport to a hotel you usually get ripped off because you're getting used to the prices and currency. We knew and expected this, however we didn't find out just how much we had got ripped off until we left Hanoi. As we got dropped off at the hotel we asked for we got told there was no rooms and we got taken to a 'sister hotel' actually called Sister Hotel. We gave the taxi driver the $15 USD we'd agreed for about an hour taxi ride. We later found out that someone else had only paid $5 - Oh well.
At the hotel we looked into booking a 1 day 2 night tour around Halong Bay which we saw on lonely planet for about 150 pounds each. The young Vietnamese guy called 'Peter' offered us the tour in a 'Deluxe Boat' for $98 USD. So we think that this is a bargain compared to what we were prepared to pay to visit the UNESCO world herritage sight. So we go right ahead and book along with an open bus ticket which transfers you from
what ever hotel you want in 7 different cities between Hanoi and Saigon (about 1200 km for $84). Although this is very cheap by English Standards we later found out the the Halong Bay Tour actually cost $45 and the bus ticket cost around $40. So we'd actually gave 24 year old Peter and his pregnant wife $99 commission or probably about a months wages! Despite this fact we enjoyed our time in Hanoi. Peter went out to get 6L of fresh beer and a cuttlefish as well as pork sticks wrapped in banana leaves! These tasted suprisingly good. The cuttlefish went very well with beer with its salty and fatty taste. Peter was in a great and helpful mood through out our trip in Hanoi and of course we knew why...
Hanoi itself was absolutely packed because that very day it was 1000 years since Hanoi was made capital of Vietnam and a huge celebration all over Vietnam was taking place. There were decorations and music in the street as well as a live stage shows on the evening and swarms of people. The traffic in Hanoi is unreal, it's just so hectic! Busier than anywhere else i've
seen in South East Asia. Simple things like crossing roads suddenly become difficult again, however it is good fun and definately worth going. We had a great but unsure time here, it was yet again another culture shock. Some backpackers we met had bad experiences when the Vietnamese refused to serve them and told them to get out of their shop before they had even stepped 1 foot in the door and it certainly didn't reflect it's nickname as ''the land of smiles''.
The traffic in Hanoi is unreal, it's just so hectic! Busier than anywhere else i've seen in South East Asia. Simple things like crossing roads suddenly become difficult again, however it is good fun and definately worth going. We go to Halong Bay tomorrow to see what awaits us there....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 43; dbt: 0.077s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb