Day 15 - Hanoi — Wayfaring Abroad

We knew when planning out our trip that this day was going to be a light day. We had our flight back to Singapore in the evening and had to check out of our hotel at noon. This meant we had a 4 hour window where we could spend some time in Hanoi before heading to the airport.

My head cold was at its worst and I knew I needed it to break so that our 15 hour flight home the next day wouldn't be a horrible experience. This meant we really took it easy. We had breakfast at our hotel and took our time getting ready. We watched a movie, packed and all around took our time. When we left the hotel we made sure that a taxi was scheduled to come pick us up and then we headed into the city.

Our plan was to take the opportunity to check out all the stalls and stores around Ho Hoan Kiem for souvenirs and to just enjoy the feel walking around the streets.

It turns out that they'd shut down the streets around the lake and there were thousands of people walking around, using "hoverboards" and little kids in electric cars.

We stopped at little pop up markets and stores selling pictures, jackets, bags and other little things. There were little trinkets and other things of interest but in the end we only got a couple things.

Street market right by the Ho Hoan Kim Lake.

We enjoyed a little people watching before heading back to our hotel and our awaiting taxi. With all the streets closed and people out in mass droves it was a little busier getting out of the old quarter and up to the airport but we made it without incident and with more than enough time for our flight.

After our flight landed back in Singapore we made our way through immigration and through the terminals to our hotel connected to the airport. We had originally intended to stay at one of the transit hotels in the airport. The transit hotels have rooms in 6 hours blocks so that if you have a long layover you can sleep and clean up before your flight. We had more than 6 hours but thought it was the easiest way to manage the time.

Our fight into Singapore arrived at 11 pm and our flight back to San Francisco was at 9:30 the next morning, meaning we really were sleeping a bit and then getting on our flight.

Unfortunately, all the rooms in the transit hotel were booked up so we had to settle for the Crowne Plaza hotel attached to Terminal 3. It was super easy walking over to the hotel and getting up to our room and settling in for our last nights sleep in Southeast Asia.