a little 60 minute flight was all it took to go 180 degrees from peaceful, chilled out Luang Prabang back into the full on glaring and blaring Asian big city, with myself prepared for everything I'd been told - hotel scams, rude people ripping you off and so on and so forth. A for effort on their part though. I decided on the Vietnam airlines shuttle into the city - at $2 per person this is the cheapest transport one will get from the airport to the city, my intention to get off at their office and continue on to my pre booked accom..tangent here...as you see, the scam centres around taxis and shuttles telling you things like the place you want to stay has moved, is full, etc, etc...having something reserved prevents this, and really all it took was a few minutes online and voila. the shuttle is hard to find, but a key is the people running it are in uniform and have vietnam airlines ID hanging on their neck. the uniform is a navy blue suit. there are many other shuttles who will actually lie to you and tell that is the one, but they are not. One said first they go 1km from the vietnam airlines office, and quickly said after, no we go there. They others will also list prices in Dong; as far as i could tell vietnam airlines shuttle was the only one that listed it in dollars ($2 to their office).
However the place the shuttle dropped me off did not match up with my ghetto map (more the problem of the map than the shuttle), and I was initially mobbed by loads of..i'm not sure, motorbike taxis, accomodation touts, who will try to take your luggage out of the bus, and continue grabbing it while you are walking. something I stopped only by turning and giving a firm 'back off!', but it was then i realised i had no idea where i was going. Was approached by more motorbike taxis and when one offered to take me and my 20kg luggage for $1, i took him up on it. good so, i'd have never found the place on my own in the dark with my screwy map.
So Hanoi backpackers it was; after having been rather antisocial in Laos i thought time to suck it up, stay in a dorm and meet other peeps. Also save a bit of cash. Dorm beds go for $7.50. They are pretty organized there, and I was shown to my room in the annex (well, mine and 7 others). If you would like a quiet reprieve both from the full volume Hanoi noise and the alcoholic 12 year olds, i'd request to be placed in this building. I suppose second best from that would be their third property (they are all within mere metres of each other) called 'The Other Side'. The dorms are new, clean, smart and the bunks are some of the best I've ever come across. very sturdy. You're also given a large locker, reading light and little shelf. The free breakfast is from 6.30 til 10 - bananas, baguettes, tea/coffee. upgrade to things with eggs or pancakes for another 30,000 Dong or so.
And yup, you'll likely meet people. Hang about the hostel bar and someone or other will chat you up. In my case it was a few minutes before a fellow Canadian did this, and I continued on with the group to the Irish pub as was standard. Was an ok evening, but lecherous men abounded (this time unlike Laos, it was all foreigners) so I made my excuses and ran out in Cinderella time (ie, before midnight). Its also a young crowd, and one with all the peer pressure to drink, which I am just so over.
thankfully the next morning at breakfast I joined forces with Matt of Chicago, who was a bit more on the same wavelength as myself. We did a walking tour of Hanoi and looked like the worst kinds of tourists holding out our map, haha. We also read about getting some 'squirmy fish' and 'chunky frogs' down one market street and psyched ourselves up to eat some but bailed in the end. Fine 'Fear Factor' candidates we would have made. Another entertaining point of the walk was nipping into a temple - which is more like someone's house, 102 i believe it was called, to have the artisan there who was evidently (and rightly) proud of his work pointing out everything, including how fascinating it was that he turned the light on. Of course we were served the obligatory tea, all parties being lost in translation as this guy spoke not a word of English.
Halfway through upon reaching the Dong Xuan market (which i called the 'Don Juan' Market for memory's sake) we called defeat and headed off for food in a cyclo taxi. we had quite an interesting time of it with them - our initial price paid was 70,000 dong and the last one was an easily bargained 40,000..we just wondered if we were losing weight. price was for the ride, not per person thankfully. The rest of the afternoon was gleefully spent mooching around in cafes around the cathedral, eventually dinner and a futile hunt for the famous 'Bia Hoi', and of course not to mention risque street crossings that could easily rival those in Bangkok. If you haven't been on the verge of being driven over by a bus or one of many honking motorbikes, you haven't been to Hanoi...
I headed on out the next day by plane to Da Nang - a steal at $35 for the one way ticket on the 75 minute flight, considering the 16 hour train journey starts at $40! bookable on the vietnam airlines website, domestic flights in vietnam are clearly a deal, as the flight was as normal as any, no delays and luggage showing up on time.
Hanoi was great, but a bit too buzzy for my liking so i'm glad now to be in peaceful Hoi An and looking forward to heading south to a beach again!
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