Vietnam - Day 1
We caught the 7:00am bus from Suwon to Incheon International Airport. Our flight left at 10:15am and we arrived in Hanoi at 1:15pm (Hanoi is 2 hours behind South Korea). We decided to take a $2/person mini-bus into Hanoi. We had to wait FOREVER for the bus to leave as it waited until it was plump full of people.
On the way we got our first glimpse of Vietnam. All allong the 4-lane "highway" were rice fields. There were water buffalo plowing the fields. Throughout our drive the water buffalo would wander onto the road. There were groups of weird brick buildings. They had no windows, no walls and were empty. It was strange - I think they were new buildings being constructed, but they looked like ghost towns. Oh-- we also saw about 15 piglets crammed in a cage on the back of a moped. So cute, too bad they were probably on their way to the butcher.
The mini-bus driver asked us if we had a hotel and like stupid naive tourists, we said "no." We wanted to be dropped off near Hoan Kiem Lake, but instead we got dropped off at someone's brother-in-law's hotel. We didn't want to be there, so we wandered towards the lake, which is funny 'cause we didn't have a clue as to where the lake was! Eventually we asked and got turned in the right direction. We looked at a couple of places before settling on the "Thanh Binh" hotel at $12/night. To get to the reception area of our hotel, you have to walk through a clothing store- it's kinda funny, but it's cheap and I get my own bed (though I'm sharing a room with Meghan).
After finding a hotel, we went to get food. We ordered a TON of food and it only cost us $22 total! After dinner we walked around Hoan Kiem Lake. Since it was pretty early, we decided to go somewhere for drinks. This is where the Vietnamese waitress recommended the Vietnamese "wine." Once again, this is NOT WINE...more like bad soju or cheap vodka. Exhausted by the day of travelling, we went to bed early!
On the way we got our first glimpse of Vietnam. All allong the 4-lane "highway" were rice fields. There were water buffalo plowing the fields. Throughout our drive the water buffalo would wander onto the road. There were groups of weird brick buildings. They had no windows, no walls and were empty. It was strange - I think they were new buildings being constructed, but they looked like ghost towns. Oh-- we also saw about 15 piglets crammed in a cage on the back of a moped. So cute, too bad they were probably on their way to the butcher.
The mini-bus driver asked us if we had a hotel and like stupid naive tourists, we said "no." We wanted to be dropped off near Hoan Kiem Lake, but instead we got dropped off at someone's brother-in-law's hotel. We didn't want to be there, so we wandered towards the lake, which is funny 'cause we didn't have a clue as to where the lake was! Eventually we asked and got turned in the right direction. We looked at a couple of places before settling on the "Thanh Binh" hotel at $12/night. To get to the reception area of our hotel, you have to walk through a clothing store- it's kinda funny, but it's cheap and I get my own bed (though I'm sharing a room with Meghan).
After finding a hotel, we went to get food. We ordered a TON of food and it only cost us $22 total! After dinner we walked around Hoan Kiem Lake. Since it was pretty early, we decided to go somewhere for drinks. This is where the Vietnamese waitress recommended the Vietnamese "wine." Once again, this is NOT WINE...more like bad soju or cheap vodka. Exhausted by the day of travelling, we went to bed early!
posted by Elissa @ 10:15 PM
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