Thursday
We landed nice and early on Thursday morning into Vietnam the local time was around about 04:15and we met our tour guide at the airport at 5am.
I was really hoping we could go straight to the hotel but no, check in wasn't until one so we were introduced to the City of Hanoi.
The centre of Hanoi was about a 50minute journey from the airport so we arrived at around 6am in the morning and went straight to breakfast at the pho 4 restaurant. We sat outside watching the hustle and bustle of the city in the morning, we then took a walk around the local market it was a very different experience compared to our markets in the UK! .
It was all fresh produce the markets are mainly were for the local people and where restaurants would buy their local produce as it’s cheaper.
Breakfast in the restaurant was chicken noodles, I was unsure about having noodles for breakfast but I actually it was very nice. After breakfast we visited the ho chi minh mausoleum (museum and house), we also stopped at a local coffee shop where the coffee was great!. (Vietnam exports a lot of coffee to different countries around the world).
After the short stop, we headed to the one pillar pagoda but by the time we had finished looking around we had got very wet - It was now raining hard and we had all packed our raincoats and umbrellas in our suitcases. Next stop was Lunch in a small local restaurant, the food was lovely. We were served many dishes mainly meat dishes and a lot of fish dishes I am not a huge fan on fish but it was so fresh and tasty .
At last we checked into our hotel, the Sunway hotel, where the rooms were perfect - but no time to rest! . We then went on a tour around Hanoi on cyclos they cost around $1 and you get to see most of the city at eye level. The cyclo dropped us off at a Water puppet show which was very interesting, it shows you how the Vietnamese people lived and worked out in the country.
We were then picked up by our guide and went for dinner at another local Vietnamese restaurant, the staff were attentive and very efficient and, of course,the food was very good !
After dinner we headed back to the hotel as we had done a lot since we arrived What a wonderful first day !!!
When we got back to the hotel we enjoyed a quick drink at the hotel bar where the bar man taught me two words to help me for the rest of my trip (I have placed them below: for those who are going to follow in my footsteps..)
Xin Chao! (sin Chow) = Hello!
Cam on! = Thank you
We then headed up to our rooms for the night, as we had a nice early start as we had to get up for breakfast (more noodles ?) at 8:00 am.
We landed nice and early on Thursday morning into Vietnam the local time was around about 04:15and we met our tour guide at the airport at 5am.
I was really hoping we could go straight to the hotel but no, check in wasn't until one so we were introduced to the City of Hanoi.
The centre of Hanoi was about a 50minute journey from the airport so we arrived at around 6am in the morning and went straight to breakfast at the pho 4 restaurant. We sat outside watching the hustle and bustle of the city in the morning, we then took a walk around the local market it was a very different experience compared to our markets in the UK! .
It was all fresh produce the markets are mainly were for the local people and where restaurants would buy their local produce as it’s cheaper.
Breakfast in the restaurant was chicken noodles, I was unsure about having noodles for breakfast but I actually it was very nice. After breakfast we visited the ho chi minh mausoleum (museum and house), we also stopped at a local coffee shop where the coffee was great!. (Vietnam exports a lot of coffee to different countries around the world).
After the short stop, we headed to the one pillar pagoda but by the time we had finished looking around we had got very wet - It was now raining hard and we had all packed our raincoats and umbrellas in our suitcases. Next stop was Lunch in a small local restaurant, the food was lovely. We were served many dishes mainly meat dishes and a lot of fish dishes I am not a huge fan on fish but it was so fresh and tasty .
At last we checked into our hotel, the Sunway hotel, where the rooms were perfect - but no time to rest! . We then went on a tour around Hanoi on cyclos they cost around $1 and you get to see most of the city at eye level. The cyclo dropped us off at a Water puppet show which was very interesting, it shows you how the Vietnamese people lived and worked out in the country.
We were then picked up by our guide and went for dinner at another local Vietnamese restaurant, the staff were attentive and very efficient and, of course,the food was very good !
After dinner we headed back to the hotel as we had done a lot since we arrived What a wonderful first day !!!
When we got back to the hotel we enjoyed a quick drink at the hotel bar where the bar man taught me two words to help me for the rest of my trip (I have placed them below: for those who are going to follow in my footsteps..)
Xin Chao! (sin Chow) = Hello!
Cam on! = Thank you
We then headed up to our rooms for the night, as we had a nice early start as we had to get up for breakfast (more noodles ?) at 8:00 am.
