Day 4
Today was going to be pretty easy. The first half of the day was spent flying from Taipei to Hanoi, then the 2nd half we spent walking around the Old Quarter, more on that later. The metro system wasn't open before 6AM so we woke up early and walked to Taipei Main Station to catch the express train to the airport, which takes about 35 minutes. So much more convenient compared to the bus/high speed rail combo. We were flying standby again today to Hanoi, Vietnam but luckily the flight was wide open!
Today's flight was operated by China Airlines on a Boeing 777-300ER painted in the special Boeing livery.
The route for today. We ended up flying straight south into the South China Sea then turned west towards Vietnam.
Lunch was a chicken pasta dish. It tasted better than it looked.
Beautiful day for flying.
Welcome to Hanoi, Vietnam!
We landed in Hanoi on time but my bag was one of the last ones off the plane, which meant we stood around for 45 minutes waiting for it. Immigrations was easy even though the e-visa policy for US citizens is fairly new. Once we picked up sim cards and withdrew some cash, we requested an Uber Black into town. A black Toyota Fortuner rolled up for the 45 minute drive into the Old Quarter in Hanoi.
The first stop was the hotel to check in and drop our bags. About a week before the trip we had booked a package through the hotel which included three nights in the hotel and one night on a boat in Ha Long Bay. It also included food, transportation and guides while at Ha Long Bay.
The Old Quarter of Hanoi is very hectic with scooters whizzing by you, people selling you things and loads and loads of tourists roaming around. This is the street right outside the hotel around 2PM.
Pineapple lady.
Vietnam's currency is the Dong (cue the jokes). Nothing says
'Welcome to Hanoi' better than an 80 cent Bahn Mi!
Bahn Mi 25, the restaurant most people recommend you visit for the sandwich.
After lunch I found an online walking guide of the Old Quarter. It was fairly difficult to follow as not every street has a street sign and the directions themselves weren't turn by turn. Either way, it gave us a great introduction to the area and had some interesting info included.
We ventured down to Hoan Kiem Lake, about 10 minutes from the restaurant, which is where the walking map started.
Traffic circle.
We visited Jade Island which is where the Ngoc Son Temple is.
The artsy incense picture.
The bridge that leads to the island.
Side street.
The walk took us into the lesser known areas of the Old Quarter and explained what each area is.
Motorbike.
Woman with fruit.
Scooters everywhere.
Note the guy on the scooter on his phone. I can imagine the "Can you hear me now?" phrase is a pretty common thing to say.
For those of you that have seen documentaries (primarily food related) of Vietnam, such as Anthony Bourdain's, you'd know that the small plastic chairs are a hallmark of street restaurants. They line the streets.
Need bamboo?
Old Quarter, Hanoi.
Old Quarter, Hanoi.
We took an Uber over to the Tran Quoc Pagoda which took longer than expected, so we missed the best sunset light.
Sunset.
For dinner we went to Bun Cha Huong Lien, which is where Anthony Bourdain and Barack Obama both ate bowls of Bun Cha.
Bun Cha is a North Vietnamese dish.
