Day 11 - Hanoi — Wayfaring Abroad

We had an early start, it was a travel day. We had a flight at 6:50 to Hanoi with a connection in Bangkok. We got up and out of our Airbnb without a problem and immediately found a taxi. In fact we breezed up to the counter and were gifted an exit row for the flight to Bangkok. However, it got interesting from there.

The empty international terminal of the Chiang Mai airport.

Our plane was at gate 8 and our flight was a domestic flight, but since we are foreigners we had to go through immigration at the international side of the terminal. There was no problem with this and in fact there were 3 people in the entire international side of the terminal. We couldn't find a door to get us to the domestic side but we did have gate 8 so we sat to wait. It kept getting closer to boarding time and we didn't even have a gate agent so we were a little worried.

Finally someone showed up and we were immediately whisked onto the plane, the first ones in fact. Once boarded, we got into the air, a couple minutes late. Once we began our decent to Bangkok however it got a little tricky. It took about 45 minutes to descend and once on the ground we weren't let off the plane because it was raining. They said we had to wait until it stopped. That took about 25 minutes. Our connection was far enough away that we didn't worry about it but it was still frustrating. This led our connection to be delayed; the reason was that our flight crew to Bangkok was our crew to Hanoi.

In the end we got to Hanoi without any real problems but about an hour late. We were a little grumpy due to being up at 4:30 but in the end we were finally in Vietnam.

We grabbed our prearranged taxi and began the drive into the city. We immediately got a taste for what driving is like in Hanoi. We were bookended by motorbikes with cars ignoring lanes and driving the wrong way so they could turn down a side street. We almost saw a bus kill 6 people by turning onto a major street without a care in the world. Eventually we got to our apartment, without a scratch, and settled into the place.

We needed to figure out what to do today and how to get to everything with only a day and a half of time dedicated to Hanoi. It took us a little time but we got our plan and set out into the streets of the Old Quarter. We first needed to get some lunch and decided on Bun Cha.

Looking out from the alley way from our Airbnb apartment onto the streets of Hanoi.

After sweating it out over our noodles and pork from the second floor of the building we made it back into the streets so that we could pay off our Ha Long Bay cruise fee. We walked through the streets making our way swiftly along. After the cruise was settled we had a long way to The Temple of Literature. We slowly went through the grounds, enjoying the serene gardens and buildings while the sounds of Hanoi were erupting around us. We look through the different buildings at the different place to pray and eventually made it back out so we could finish our day by the Presidential Palace.

We made it up to the Grand Plaza and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum where we were able to wander the plaza free of cars.

We walked up to the presidential palace and over to the Botanical Gardens where we strolled through the grounds, stopping by the lakes and watching as people were exercising and playing badminton. Along the way back from the Gardens we stopped at The One Pillar Pogada.

At this point we were exhausted and ready to head back to our apartment but we decided to hit a couple more places along the way. We tried to get to the Hanoi Citadel and Doan Mon Gate but unfortunately went along the wrong side of the wall and it turns out they were closed. Instead of getting to them we added about 2 miles to our walk home.

With nowhere else to go for the day we made our way back to the apartment and the waiting air conditioning.