Touch down in Vietnam and once we’d managed to get our heads round the inflated currency (£1 is about 33,000 dong but we still felt fabulous withdrawing 3 million each!) we were on our way into the city centre.
After being told from airport information that the cheapest way to get to the centre was a taxi costing US$25 we were beginning to get worried that maybe Vietnam wouldn’t be as cheap as Thailand was in November but alas the minute we headed towards the taxi rank we were ushered inside a minivan who’s driver enticed us with a US$5 each journey – bargain! Or so we originally thought… There was definitely something dodgy about the whole thing – the bus was hiding in the background trying to look as inconspicuous as possible and the driver and ticket seller were keeping both eyes open (for police I presume) looking very suspicious!
After they’d over filled the tiny mini bus our $5 was collected and we were on our way – although the driver never asked anybody’s destination so we weren’t entirely sure where we’d end up!
With Kerry being a first time traveller she wasn’t exactly used to these kinds of roads and spent the whole journey gripping onto my arm, jumping in horror every now and then at this near accident or that baby of the back of a motorbike. All part of the adventure I like to think!
After a quick catch up on some work we headed out for dinner via some dodgy map directions towards the ‘bar’ area. Hanoi is just crazy! Flying mopeds in every direction and you just have to play chicken on every single road – I love it! We somehow ended up in a central area with a very large roundabout which we had no choice but to literally run through, trying to dodge as many mopeds as possible! I think they did a better job at dodging us than we did at dodging them! We found a building which seemed to have a rooftop bar/restaurant and headed towards that with the aim of being a safe enough distance away from the hectic streets but when we arrived at the building and were asked whether we wanted Korean, Vietnamese or Italian food there was a clear winner and we were directed to the third floor rather than the rooftop. We’ll try the local food tomorrow…. We promise!
After dinner we braved the roads one more time to find this bar area we’d been told of and with the help of a few locals we were in luck! Although I must admit we heard it before we saw it! The atmosphere was crazy!!! This is where all the backpackers have been hiding! There was one visible ‘club’ which we obviously headed straight towards but all of the other ‘bars’ were mostly an empty looking room with a tiny counter at the back which I presume counted as the bar, all areas (including the streets!) were filled with backpackers sitting on empty milk crates cuddling there 50p beers.
We treated ourselves to a £2 cocktail and after a bit of a dance and a wander around the area we headed back to hotel in fear of the 6am pick up to Halong Bay in the morning.
eyes abroad 