Day 2: Discovering Hanoi, Vietnam

My morning began very similar to the day before, having my breaki on the rooftop of my hostel being served toast, eggs and fruit.  Of course no morning is complete without my coffee which luckily is served all day long.

This day was similarly rushed, as I had only 12 hour to discover Hanoi before my 9pm sleeper bus takes off to Sapa.

To start out my city tour, I walked towards the parliament and the presidential house.  I figured fro. There it is easy to tag along a tour. I did manage to join a tour but it turned out it was a paid service and I was not able to follow this group to the next location.  I parted ways from this group at the one pillar pagoda and started walking towards my next destination.

As I walked towards the Ho Chi Minh museum....and older gentleman approached me.  Not speaking any English, he quickly hands me a little black book with handwritten notes in them.  As i read each page....I notice that these are comments and feedback from tourist who have used his tour service.  Withing a few pages i find myself convinced that I too will use him as my tour guide around Hanoi. 

If you cannot trust a 65 year old driver, who can you trust in this world?

The day went as follows:
1. Prison museum
2. Woman's museum
3. Lunch break
4. Puppet show ticket
5. Vietnamese Notre Dame

                             

While he did charge me a hefty price of $20 or more, I was happy to have my private scooter and not have to drive myself around in the crazy Hanoi traffic. Five hours by scooter and 4 hours walking, all well spent, and I was ready to leave the city behind for some much needed Sapa hills experience.

My bags are packed and at 10pm, Vietnam time is similar to Africa time, I was picked up and taken to a place where I boarded my very first sleeper bus.

The details of this 3 day journey will be explained in the next post.

Cheers 

-R :-)