Day 1 - Thursday April 30, 2009 - Hong Kong to Hanoi, Vietnam

I want to start posting what I have completed. This post is unfinished I still want to add pictures to it when I get to a computer with a USB drive and if my USB stick isn't toast...

Also keep in mind this is a flashback post...queue harp arpeggio and wavy lines fading to black...


We went to the airport at 11:25 after finishing getting ready in the morning, we exchanged money, ate, and caught our plane. We were pretty tired and our plane waited in line a while before taking off. We had a 1.5 hour flight into Hanoi, we made it though customs pretty easily and helped out a British couple who didn't bring any US dollars with them to pay for their visas... So we took their Hong Kong dollars in exchange for some US greenbacks.

We found a local bus going into the city which was supposed to be "leaving in 10 minutes" an hour later we pulled out for the hour ride into the city. It was alright though we were able to pick up a few Vietnamese phrases from some of the bus attendants that would come in handy over the next few days.

We didn't really have a destination, just the Old Town part of the city. The bus attendant waved to us to get off at this one intersection near a park. We stepped off the bus and into a world of chaotic craziness; walls of motorbikes, zooming cars, and relentless beep-beeps coming from all directions. We walked around awestruck and overwhelmed. Eventually we found our way to the "Blue Sky Hotel" which was a very nice place for $7 each per night which included Breakfast, TV, Air Conditioning, and Internet. Most of these Hotel/Hostels were also travel agents and could hook you up with pretty much anything you needed to do to be a tourist.

We bought Halong Bay tickets for a 2 day, 1 night stay on a tour boat called "Fantasea Adventures" this included meals and transportation to and from Halong Bay which was 3 hours from Hanoi.

We also decided to take an overnight bus from Hanoi down to Hue, Vietnam on Sunday night.

We went out exploring around the bustling streets and found a place to get traditional Vietnam food. I ordered a really great meal of Pineapple, beef, and cashews in a mild sauce with rice and some spring rolls. This cost about 79,000 VND (Dong) which ends up being about $4.5 dollars for a excellent and filling meal. Really tired as I write this entry.