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Published: February 19th 2012
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Free Stuff
Whow Thanks for the freebies Well when I was researching our trip I found that the travel blogs that had given the weather information and hotel details became really useful information, so we will do that as we go along. That said the flight over last night from Hong Kong was only a few minutes behind schdule. Dragon Air was the name of the Air Line, the aircraft was older but really more comfortable than the long haul flight and as it was only two thirds full there was plenty of room. More food and more free drink, we certainly haven't gone hungry with our 3rd meal in 14 hours flying time.
We arrived in Hanoi and a few worries first, our bags were last off, causing a bit of concern, but we think that is probably because they were first on. But eventually they popped up and were both really grateful to the guy who put them on! Then two minutes later Pauline used the cash point and that was out of money, but the tranasction seemed to have gone through! We are waiting to check that out, but we think it will be alright, just as well as it was for
Another Wedding
You get the drift you seen one, you seen em all 6 Million Dong! So we checked out all the other ATM's and they were all out of money, no real surprise as no-one can buy Dong in any country outside of Vietnam, so as soon as most people arrive they raid the cashpoint. But there are ATM's everywhere, it's just we were told you can draw out the biggest amounts at the airport. Anywell that problem was solved later when we drew out 2 Million Dong which is about £60!! We got 40 x 50,000 Dong Notes! About £1.50 each.
Our Free Lift was there to pick us up, so that was good news, he soon had our luggage in the boot and we were off, it took longer than we thought about 40 minutes and the traffic was quite quiet for now at least. Hotel Charming 2 was picked because it is No 3 on Trip Advisor out of 345 hotels in Hanoi with over 400 reviews most of them are excellent reviews. It was soon obvious as when the car pulled up 4 staff decended on the car with "Welcome Sir Welcome Madam" and we were whisked inside for a welcome drink and chat.
The rooms
are spotlessly clean and we had a welcome pack of fresh flowers, fruit, and a bottle of Red Wine all free.
Not bad for £30 a night! We have a computer with internet access, plus wi-fi for the laptop, plus all the usual things you expect to see in a room, but you have to say for the money, what fantastic value.
We did pop out for a couple of hours, both pretty tired but we had a good time, getting lost of course on the way home meant as we arrived back at the Hotel at 12.30am 3 of the staff were asleep on the floor in the lobby! We did feel just slightly guilty stepping over them to get to the lift.
Crash we were asleep, I woke up at about 5.30am with beep beep......beep beep, it was the traffic waking up...but hang on it's Sunday!! Thats interesting, what's it going to be like on Monday! Luckily I managed to drop off again and we both woke at 8.15 not too bad. Breakfast was great no problems there at all. The weather was overcast we expected that it is colder in North Vietnam but everywhere the
forecast is for things to pick up after the weekend. It was about 15 or 16 degrees outside but perfect for walking around.
Off we went again into town heading for the Hoan KiemLake, the locals do their exercises in the morning around the lake, but I think at 10.30 we had missed that! I think they start at 5.30! it was soon obvious the traffic was a lot more difficult to negotiate then we expected. You have concentrate on it all the time, the locals certainly don't however! I had read about the traffic on about every single blog on Hanoi that I had seen, probably well over 100 blogs. I had been sort of been letting Pauline know that the traffic was going to be difficult, because I know she hates it when it get scary. SCARY this certainly was! Whatever you read about the traffic it is never going to be enough preperation for the real thing, it has to be the worst city in the world. Its not traffic jams. It is the consistency and the hap hazard zig-zagging way the traffic, somehow, (god knows how) manages to just keep going. There is NEVER a traffic jam, there never seems to be a crash. We have never heard a police, ambulance or fire siren. Somehow, the traffic just keeps on flowing at about 15 mph, not fast. But its just hundreds and hundreds perhaps thousands, even millions! of motor scooters that just keep coming from somewhere. It is amazing to watch. It should be the 9th wonder of the world.............
We found the lake easy enough and we were only walking 5 minutes and we saw a Wedding, Oh that's nice we have to take the madantory couple of photos, and move on. Ar how nice. But it was a bit strange because there was only the happy couple and one photographer, oh well still nice. Oh look, what a co-incidence another weddding over there look! We walk over the 20 metres and take their photo as well. What's the chances of seeing 2 Weddings, well pretty good actually, because there is another one over there. Take photo, move on. Bloody hell, another one over there. That how many, 4. Ok photo. This just keeps going on and on, old ones, young ones, happy ones, bloody sad looking ones, 23 of them! And that of course was just between 11.00am and midday, god knows how many got married and had their photos done at the lake today! Its was kinda strange though that all the weddings there was just the happy couple and a photographer, no family!
We carried on and had a great day walking around, we avoided getting run over, just, and we have still not seen an accident or heard a red light siren. How we will never know as tonight we watched scooters stepping up the pace a little doing a few tricks, going against the traffic, sitting on their scooter backwards. This is all while the traffic is dodging around ALL over the place, I just cannot emphasise enough how crazy it is, but it was just 23 Weddings we saw today..............nothing else. Amazing place, more to come tomorrow that I have no doubt about.
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Doan
non-member comment
weddings
hi, i dont think it's wedding. it just couples that will get marry and they want some pre-made photograph for the wedding day. so they go to nice area of the city to take these photos. when their wedding come around, they can have some huge print out pictures of the couple on wedding day!