Said that I would be back once the palace floors have been swept, I guess it must have been then! (I kid) So, as you can see from the title of this post, it's going to be about my trip to Vietnam! I'm finally back on this site after half a year since Korea! I would've done a post on Phuket but I was really lazy and Bangkok was just the same old shopping and eating all day kinda thing.
Basically, how it all started was me instigating Jieyi (Jiez) to come along with me, but after reading her dayre, I felt bad because she had to forgo a trip with her boyfriend or going to somewhere she really wanted to go, i.e. Japan/Perth but our tickets were already booked so.. I honestly am so thankful for Jiez (perfect travel buddy) because she was so prepared and brought everything we needed and even extra for me :') And to whomever that asked for our itinerary, we really didn't have one.
DAY 1:
The hotel we stayed in (Eco Hotel Hanoi located at the Old Quarters) offered airport pickup services for 18USD, hence we decided to use it because we wanted to avoid taxi scams. We reached Hanoi in the noon and our airport pickup was already there, annoyed because we came out 30 minutes later than the arranged time but we still needed to get our SIM cards and check the currency rates before leaving the airport. He impatiently pointed us to an expensive SIM card service provider and I think we paid two times more than if we had gotten our SIM card from another provider. Oh well....
Headed out for lunch after checking in and we spotted a shop called My Pho only to find out that this place doesn't sell Pho. Fox later told me that 'Pho' means street, it doesn't mean that they sell Pho (well that made me felt sooooooo stupid)
I look way too happy for someone who hates her greens and has a bowl of noodles full of it
And then came two other girls with their pet pug who sat beside us and made Jiez lose her appetite because she's very afraid of dogs but it was so cute!!
The look it gave me the entire time I was eating hehe can I keep you?!
Really hate how difficult it is to cross the roads there, like I literally cuss every time we had to cross the road. You can see them still moving along even though the traffic lights have changed to red.
One of the intersections we came across
Went on and explored the Old Quarters after lunch and walked to Hoàn Kiếm Lake
I can't come to Vietnam and not meet my favourite Vietnamese friend right?! So we arranged to meet at 7pm for dinner. Met at the hotel lobby and I was elated to finally meet Fox (a nickname I've been calling him since I knew him) after 2 years! He took us to Hang Than Street to have BBQ, doing it the Vietnamese way because we just had to!
Fox being camera shy and all..
Fox cooked the entire time and it was really tasty and yummy!
Even though he bullies me sometimes, he's still one of the sweetest friend one could have! Time flies by really quick and it felt like I just knew you yesterday when it has already been 5 years.. Thank you for insisting on sending us back to the hotel and even calling me to let me know that there's a convenience store across the hotel that we can get whatever we need from^^ Counting my blessings everyday
And I called Uber for the first time when I was there! Wooo achievement unlocked! LOL
So as you can tell, day 1 ended rather well and I wouldn't have it any other way
So as you can tell, day 1 ended rather well and I wouldn't have it any other way
DAY 2:
Fox was supposed to meet us for lunch but because he is a busy man, he couldn't make it, so he gave us the address for one of the best bun cha in the Old Quarters located at No.1 Hang Manh street!
It actually tastes better than it looks
Fox was supposed to meet us for lunch but because he is a busy man, he couldn't make it, so he gave us the address for one of the best bun cha in the Old Quarters located at No.1 Hang Manh street!
It actually tastes better than it looks
Roamed around Old Quarters again and we chanced upon this church!
Because we were really bored we decided to just chill at a tiny cafe and this place sells the best avocado smoothie!
RBF game strong
We got back to the hotel and showered before heading down to the lobby to wait for our Sapa tour pickup which was at 9pm. Yes, we had to pay to extend our check out time but we really needed to shower before getting on that sleeper train!
We booked our tour (Sapa Trekking Tour 2 Days) via this website; http://www.vietnamawesometravel.com/ There are so many tours for you to choose from! Jiez emailed them and had everything arranged properly about 2 weeks before we left.
My first experience with sleeper trains and I loved it! Even though I felt nauseous at first LOL but then, I SLEPT so it was fine after
Both of us couldn't sleep well that night but we thought that it was a darn good experience?!
We shared a cabin with a couple from France and they were so cute!
I wanted to do an entry for the entire trip but I realized that it would be way too long hence I decided to break it into 3 parts; Day 1 and 2, Sapa (Day 3 and 4) and Day 5, 6, 7 and 8.
