Hell-o Ha-noi!

Our second long haul overnight bus wasn’t quite as torturous as the first one. For starters we picked our seats and therefore picked the ones that were the most comfortable. The bus was 13 hours, and for some sections felt like we were off roading on a gravel road. We arrived in Hanoi bright and early the next morning and again were lucky enough to find an amazing deal on a hotel room. This really surprised us because we had heard Hanoi would be particularly expensive. Our room was only $8 and had internet in the room, air conditioning, hot shower and two beds. Honestly, who could ask for more?
Andrew unfortunately came down with a cold and therefore needed to rest. Since we only had three days in the city before leaving for Halong Bay, feeling better was very important. I’m a little embarrassed to say, but we did not see any sights in Hanoi other than the shopping streets. Hanoi has a few streets that are full of shops the sell shoes and bags. Every type of running shoe knock-off you can imagine. The prices are dirt cheap, and frankly you cannot tell the difference between real or fake. We were told that Nike's are made here in Vietnam, and in fact the sneakers are the “real deal!” So currently, Andrew and I are the owners of seven brand new pairs of shoes! Buying so many meant that we had to ship yet another package home. Andrew was absolutely giddy with his purchases, it was like watching a kid after Christmas.

Our first real “negative” experience during our entire time away:
We have been so fortunate to not have encountered some of the things that you read about in your guide book. Most people that we have met are genuinely nice people that aren’t out to harm anyone. We acknowledge that people are out to make a “buck” off of foreigners, but that’s ok, although it’s not ok to lie or to be dishonest. When I started writing this blog earlier this week, my view of our hotel was a little different than it is at present. My opinion was changed from the sweet hotel with an amazing price to the hotel with a terribly dishonest staff member. After returning to the hotel after two wonderful days sailing around Halong Bay, we sat and chatted with the staff and waited for our taxi to the airport to arrive. Two hours later as our taxi pulled up, one of the employees, who could speak English well, asked us to pay for the taxi and our hotel bill. To make a long story short… this is when my opinion of the hotel changed. He accused us of not paying our bill, when it was him that we had paid before leaving for Halong bay. Obviously we would never try to walk away without paying, and it was him being extremely dishonest. It was our mistake to not have taken a receipt when we paid, so we had no proof. But this hotel was not a big hotel, there were maybe eight rooms in the entire building. It became quite a commotion and in the end, we left without repaying, I was sobbing in tears (as that is what I do when I’m upset), Andrew was yelling at the guy, the guy was yelling at Andrew, the owner (a sweet lady that couldn't speak English) was trying hard to diffuse the situation and was holding the guy back. In the end… the others apologized to us. Maybe they understood that we were telling the truth, or maybe they just didn’t want a big loud situation. Regardless, it was upsetting and I left the country in a bad crusty mood!

Click on the picture below to see the album in Picasa

Hanoi, Vietnam

~Nicola