A panicked breakfast
Whilst we were having our free breakfast, we realised that there were no available hostels in Ha Long Bay. Staying in Ha Long Bay itself was very expensive and short in supply. In addition, the bus that we’d booked was too late to make it for the last ferry to Cat Ba Island, near to Ha Long Bay. So we asked the receptionist if we could swap our bus to go to Hanoi today, then get the bus to Cat Ba Island tomorrow. The receptionist said okay, but admitted he would be making a loss as he couldn’t cancel the other bus. I felt guilty for a minute, but I was okay after that. I still appreciate his decision though.
Qian had left for Hanoi already at this point, and we’d said our goodbyes. Our new bus was arriving at 4pm, so Mat and I had to make ourselves busy for several hours. We asked the receptionist and he pointed to us a large market across town. So we began our trek across the city, in the baking heat. We eventually got to the market, which I thought would be a supermarket or a shopping centre. Instead, it was a huge shelter filled with tons of stalls of random stuff in a grid formation. There was nothing useful for us, but just everything and anything, odds and ends.
Pursuing a shopping centre
On Google Maps, we typed in ‘shopping centre’ and ‘mall’, and the great goose chase began. There were a couple of spots near each other that we went after. Every single point had us scratching our heads in confusion. None of them were actually shopping centres. Instead, they were more like buildings with multiple companies, but not for browsing. A large disappointment it must be said. It wasn’t a total waste, we managed to withdraw $100 each for when we cross over into Laos.
We grabbed some food from Jollibee, basically a budget McDonalds. After our brief meal, we headed back to the hostel in time to catch our taxi to Hanoi. When it turned up, it was like a luxury taxi inside. Leather reclining seats, dead nice and comfortable. Unfortunately, I was in the middle at the back, so I had no arm rest or head rest. I just had a nap to kill the time. It was only a brief journey to Hanoi, but when I woke up, it was like Ho Chi Minh all over again. We were just in the middle of swathes of bikes and cars, proper mental. To check out our time in Ho Chi Minh, click here.
Tip!
When we withdrew money from a Vietnamese bank, we weren’t able to use credit/debit card. Instead, we had to withdraw the equivalent amount from the ATM outside, and then swapped it for the dollars. Something to bear in mind if you’re converting large amounts of money since ATMs will have a limit. We used Vietcomback.
Checking out the city
Our taxi dumped us on the streets of Hanoi, relatively close to our hostel…we just had to find it in this maze. The hostel was down and side street, and it was called Zims House, click here for more info. Our mixed dorm was decent, quite a lot of folks in there, but nicely furnished. We checked into our hostel, had a quick look around, then headed out to explore the hive of activity. Our bellies were running low as Jollibee was unable to fulfil our appetites. We managed to find an Australian themed burger restaurant. The chicken burger and fries I had weren’t cheap, but the quality was top notch. Not had delicious and filthy food like this in ages.
After food, we decided to face the crowds and, unsurprisingly, got lost. We kept seeing the same things over and over again. This section of Hanoi was almost a grid, and I thought I could retrace our steps, but clearly failed. We did manage to haggle with a woman in a clothes shop selling North Face clothes. Both of us got long sleeves tops for a decent price. As North Face is made in Vietnam, anything that doesn’t make the proper shops ends up here. So it’s legitimate stuff, just a bit wonky. I couldn’t tell anything was wrong.
With the help of Google Maps, we made it back to our hostel. We came close to the correct way a few times, but ended up taking a wrong turn. It’s exhausting walking the chaotic streets, so we promptly turned in for the night.
