Direktlänk till inlägg 21 juni 2017

Day 16 - Moody days and heavy rain

Av Magnus Ekstrand - 21 juni 2017 15:29

We left early in the morning to catch our flight at 08:15. We dared to take a random taxi(from a company with good reputation) just outside the hotel. Turned out to be a nice guy and we arrived to the airport safely. I really should've taken a picture of it as it was no larger than a medium sized conviniance store in Sweden. It feautured only two gates and only one flight in the morning so we felt no need to be worried about sitting at the right gate/boarding the right plane. I slept most of the flight, but was still tired when we arrived at Hanoi.


The driver from the hotel picked us up and we drove for about 35 minutes before arriving at the hotel. About 40 minutes later we had checked in early and had been given a deluxe suite instead of a regular room. We did however get some mixup between Twin room and a Double room and as such it seemed that me and Martin was to share bed. We don't really mind, but it is always fun to wonder what the staff might've been thinking about us. After this, we set out to explore a minor lake inside Hanoi as this seemed to require a minimum of energy. To be honest both of us was reaaaally tired. On the way to the lake we saw a MC driver and his passanger speed by at a insane speed(80-90km/h inside the streets of Hanoi). 2 minutes down the road he'd been stopped by the police. I then did something which was maybe stupid, and most surely uneccessary. I tried to sneak a photo. This earned me some stern shouting from a police I hadn't seen and earned me a scolding from Martin, which I deserved. I probably got off easy and could've ended up with a fine or some trouble we didn't really care for. This did however spark an unexpected turn of the day with me trying to figure out exactly how corrupt the vietnamese police was. I also ended up reading about frequent scams in Vietnam and found out that the peddler taxi(surprise, surprise) had a really bad reputation and was to be avoided. There also seemed to be several scams specific to the hanoi region. One that I almost had been exposed to: While I was walking a guy started shouting and brought my attention to my shoes. Since he was very insistent I stopped to see what he ment. He then procceded to kneel down and try to spray sometime inside my shoes. Luckiely I was quick enough to pull away. It seems they either attach glue or a detergant that ruins the seams of the shoe and then offer to either fix the shoe or to get rid of the glue. While doing this all types of merchants will supply you with "the things needed" to fix the shoe for a not totally extravagant, but still pricey sums.


This and said event with the police had both me and Martin on edge. Hanoi also didn't feel as trustworthy as other cities we had been in. We couldn't really say why but that was the way it was. We therefore spent most of the afternoon at the hotel, reading and relaxing. In the night however we did a food tour which was really amazing. It brought us to many smalltime places where we could try the local food and beer. It also made so that we met John from america which was doing his first days in Vietnam. Very nice fellow. Nice enought that we ended up going out for drinks later on in the evening until late.


But more than the foodtour there was also heavy rain. The kind of rain we never get in Sweden - the skyfall one which floods streets and drenched anything that even goes outside for a couple of minutes. It lasted during the entire foodtour, only letting up when we returned to the hotel. I enjoyed it immensly as rain is by far my favourite weather. It makes me feel alive in ways that are hard to describe. The joy of walking the flooded streets, not caring that my sandals got wet. Feeling the slow chill of the everlasting flow of water against of my rainclothes really reset and turned my mood for the better.

  

Our flight to Hanoi  

The smog was slighty worse here  

The local lake that we visited.   
Pavements are as clouded by scooters as usual, streets as busy as any other cities.  

Local temple we didn't visit because we were feeling low and also there was an enterance fee.   

Art in our hotel room. The bed was also laid with roses, litteraly...  

Going out on the foodtour.  

First stop where we had egg coffe,.  

Was really delicious, even if the chairs was about 2-3dm in height....

Second stop, local bar! Draft beer directly from the "barrel"   

Rain, rain and rain! :D  

Us at the local bar, yet again not so big chairs.  

Streets flooded kinda quickly.  

Mashed banana thingy that surrounded something that tasted meatballs.  

Duck egg oumelette, kinda tasty(?)    

Eel and noodles   

Picture from the cleanliness of some of the streets in Hanoi... People just throws their trash outside...

The first of the bars we visited, loud music, louder singing from the patrons.   

As many places in Hanoi, at happy hour they serve buy one get two for free. Also happen to include their "bucket drink". I didn't have one, just seeing John and Martin drink theirs was enough.  

After this we went to a place where they also "served" laughing gas. It is used as anastetic in emergency departments and at maternity wards when giving birth. Here in Vietnam it was just another way to enjoy the night. I didn't have any but instead sat around observing it's effect on ´people who was also (slightly-majorly) intoxicated. It seemed to be harmless enough, but what really amazed me was that people smoked at the same time as they inhaled from the baloons(which was how they served the gas). If i remember correctly the gas is also expolisive...(?)  

Seems that Obama visited the district awhile ago and dined at a local resturant, since then many resturants have clamed to be the one favoured by the american president.


Tomorrow we leave for Halong Bay!

 

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Kommentar

Av Magnus Ekstrand - 25 juni 2017 17:04

First of all. Thank you all for reading. This will be the last day that I record for my Vietnam travels. It's been a great trip but I am really looking forward to returning to Sweden. This could well be noticed since we spent most of the day just tak...

Av Magnus Ekstrand - 25 juni 2017 08:00

We arrived abou 04:30 am to Hanoi and went directly to the hotel. The gates was barred but there was a doorbell which we rang 3 times before a drowsy looking guy opened the door. Much to our amazement we were allowed to check in at this time and we s...

Av Magnus Ekstrand - 23 juni 2017 13:55

So today we yet again had a private driver to drive us to some of the scenic points of the area. This happened to be the Love and Silver waterfall as well as the Fansipan mountain. The Love waterfall was the first and it was a really nice view. There...

Av Magnus Ekstrand - 23 juni 2017 04:40

So we arrived to early. The train stopped in Lao Cai which is a village close to Sapa. I was a bit curious on how we would actually get to Sapa from here but it didn't take long until we had a ride for 50 000VND(which is nothing). Directly after bein...

Av Magnus Ekstrand - 22 juni 2017 15:27

We woke up, fortunantly without any sign of cockroaches in our cabin and had a below average breakfast. After this we had some leisure time before the crew dropped us at a pearl museum. It feautured some monitors, a guided tour about pearls and oyste...

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