Hanoi: Day 1

Friday morning we set off for Hanoi! We had a 12-something flight, so we had breakfast at the hostel and hung out for a little bit before leaving for the airport around 10:30am. Since it was a domestic flight, checking into our flight and going through security was easy. I feel like the workers weren’t too concerned with anything.

{One thing we noticed while checking in was that Vietnamese don’t understand standing in line like we do. People were literally just gathering around the counter throwing their passports and tickets to the lady; constantly shoving and pushing each other just to get checked in. It was crazy.}

The flight to Hanoi was only 2 hours; I napped and listened to my iPod. When we arrived in Hanoi the taxi our hostel arranged for us greeted us. Driving from the airport to the hostel, I noticed a huge difference from HCMC and Hanoi. In Hanoi, driver still relied on their horns, but not as much; it was much quieter than HCMC. In addition, it seemed like the Hanoi airport was further from the city than the airport in HCMC (not that that’s really important…).

We arrived at our hostel, the Drift Backpacker and unpacked in our dorm style room- yep, we stayed with 3 other girls in bunk beds (I got a bottom bed J). We grabbed a quick dinner at the hostel before heading off to meet up with the HWS kids studying in Hanoi. I was rather excited to see my fellow Heron, Tess.

After being dropped off on a random street and being told the address was ‘over there {insert hand point here}’ and asking numerous people for directions, we finally ran into a few HWS kids who were able to lead us to their dorms. And I finally got to see Tess for the first time since May! It was great to see her.

Tess, along with some other HWS kids took us out to eat at a BBQ chicken place. It was basically a street where people sit on these little chairs around small tables and eat this delicious chicken and bread. 

We were served chicken leg (basically both pieces of a chicken wing on a stick- it was hard to eat, but we were all able to handle it) and some other type of chicken, and then this bread which is grilled and dipped (?) in honey. All so delicious.

Afterwards, we went to this small little bar (not really sure what to call it) by their dorms. They basically brew (again, not sure) their own beer and sell it for less than 10,000 dong or less than fifty cents. They also served peanuts, cucumbers and salt (who would have thought- but the combo of cucumbers and salt is delicious) and quail eggs (yes- I actually had a quail egg!). We hung out there for a little while before finishing the night off with fried bananas at another street vendor. Again, delicious. It was a great day to start off our visit in Hanoi!

The quail eggs!

And fried bananas!