My wife and i had travelled to Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam recently for 6 days 5 nights (Mar-2014)… The experience in Hanoi was a eye opening experience for both of us.
The night before we were preparing our luggage for Vietnam, i asked my wife why are we going to Vietnam for holiday? In my mind… i thought, we could actually plan for Taiwan, HongKong, those places where communication, shopping is a breeze, and we still can enjoy the cooling weather.
My wife looked at me stared blanket, she also don’t know why Vietnam too, we both looked at each other and we laughed. Anyways, we are hoping to find some peace, some peaceful lifestyle in Hanoi, Vietnam compare to Singapore.
HOW TO BOOK? My wife did a little homework online by browsing Tripadvisor, she was able to get good accommodation and flight tickets deals from there. For the tickets, tripadvisor had recommended her to book Tiger airway via an Indonesia travel company called the Tiket.com . Did some comparison with other travel online agencies, we were able to save SGD$100, for 2 ways tickets, 2 pax in total. I was skeptical at first, by hey, we boarded the plane, and we came back to share this deal with you.
First impression
Upon arriving at the arrival gate, the first thing that caught my attention were the security officers at the airport. The green old school uniform with badges to identify them looks like the military officers from North Korea.
Now I have to set the expectation straight before I step out if the airport. It seems to me that the country has yet to promote Hanoi a tourist destination and very often we don’t see any English signage; feeling lost in the foreign land.
We were approached by a man who offered at the check out area, before hand, I read from other blog to get to second level to look for the official air port transfer service, but I guessed we were very bold to accept the stranger’s offer, the fee was SGD$23.
The weather was foggy grey and the traffic was expectably chaotic! We both had culture shock, the traffic is worst than Jakarta, I see no road marking on the road, nor very prominent dividers. The driver was very “skillful” to drive thru the approaching traffic; while chatting on mobile with one hand.
Saw a couple of interesting sites along the way, like tombstones at the paddy field, a truck loaded up with a dozen of pigs (you can actually see real pig here, in Singapore you’ll get to see chucks of pork in the marketplace), a basket of dogs secured at the back of the motor cycle (not a sight for dogs lovers). There was a military truck honking all the way, driving in front of us along the two lane street, and it can’t stay still in his own lane.
I think if Singaporean is going to complain the traffic is bad… We really have to take a look at the less develop country.
Below are some photos i’ve taken, there are more info attached in the caption. In my next few blogs, I will be posting articles related our Hanoi/ Halong Bay Holiday, so keep a look out yeah.
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