Hanoi
Hanoi is mental. We landed at the airport outside the city an got a taxi into town. We agreed $8 and when we got to the oldtown where we are staying he said $10. We told him to piss off but basically straight away , more than the rest of Vietnam you are being scammed up here.
Also the place is the most chaoticly busy and mental place so far. The streets are very small and are all old fashond alleys everywhere, relly easy to get lost! The amount of motor bikes is unbeliveable here, literally millions and it makes Siagon look like Dublin. You cannot walk on the foot path because of the amount of people and junk squeezed into the place. 13 million people live here and it feels like it. It is great to see but the sheer noise, speed, heat of it soon starts to get under your skin when combined with the constant scamming.
We booked into the hotel and even there we could not get in or out of the room with out the reception guy hasseling us full on to book a tour with him as all hotels here double as travel agencys. Its OK at first but constantly being asked what you are doing today or tomorrow bugs me, its my buisness what I do!! Its all very smooth talking and very friendly but the bottom line is extracting $$$ from your wallet. People will talk to you and badger you for hours if they think they can get some $ Often its quite funny but it can piss you off, one example is blatantly paying double or triple for anything here compared to locals. Yes, in Aisa tourists pay more than the locals, thats cool and no problem. In Hanoi its a different level. If I want to buy batteries for the camera they start at $5 and I have to haggle then down to 1.50 which is as cheap as I can get so far, they should be less than buck! Another one I heard is some firends were shopping in a normal shop, they paid, got the recipt and the woman scribbled out the total and wrote a much higher one down instead!! Mental.
So between noise hassle and scams Hanoi has turned out to be just a nessaccary evil as its the main transport hub for us to explore North Vietnam and move on to Laos.
To top this the ATM machine swallowed my Visa card which ended up being a pain in the arse as it was the weekend so we had to hit some friends up for a loan of a few quid (cheers Tania and Kathrine!!) Luckily I got travel insurance and the bank wired through money to me stress free, nearly.
The first night in Hanoi was a laugh, we went around in a rickshaw and had a few drinks in a cool little bar and talked with the manager there for ages about Vietnam and travel. Hanoi is full of intresting things and good people its just a lot of hassle finding them sometimes!
We booked a day trip for the next day to a place called Tam Coc and the old capital. It was 3 hours outside Hanoi and just what the doctor orderd. First in the morning we went to the ancient old capital of vietnam which was beautifull, really old asian palace situated in an area where the mountians just shoot out of the ground, really high and narrow so the look like pillars, very very exotic like! After lunch and a battery haggle we did aboat trip to Tam Coc itslef which is the same mountians but you can float around and under them on little boats as its all flooded rice paddies. The scenery was stunning and I nearly melted my camera. We had two girls rowing us for a few hours, it was very hot and I felt guilty getting paddeled around by girls so I have a crack at the rowing. Dee also had a go on the oars and we floated in circle for a bit then. We were the last back and jumped on the minibus back to Hanoi. Big sleep that night.
Also the place is the most chaoticly busy and mental place so far. The streets are very small and are all old fashond alleys everywhere, relly easy to get lost! The amount of motor bikes is unbeliveable here, literally millions and it makes Siagon look like Dublin. You cannot walk on the foot path because of the amount of people and junk squeezed into the place. 13 million people live here and it feels like it. It is great to see but the sheer noise, speed, heat of it soon starts to get under your skin when combined with the constant scamming.
We booked into the hotel and even there we could not get in or out of the room with out the reception guy hasseling us full on to book a tour with him as all hotels here double as travel agencys. Its OK at first but constantly being asked what you are doing today or tomorrow bugs me, its my buisness what I do!! Its all very smooth talking and very friendly but the bottom line is extracting $$$ from your wallet. People will talk to you and badger you for hours if they think they can get some $ Often its quite funny but it can piss you off, one example is blatantly paying double or triple for anything here compared to locals. Yes, in Aisa tourists pay more than the locals, thats cool and no problem. In Hanoi its a different level. If I want to buy batteries for the camera they start at $5 and I have to haggle then down to 1.50 which is as cheap as I can get so far, they should be less than buck! Another one I heard is some firends were shopping in a normal shop, they paid, got the recipt and the woman scribbled out the total and wrote a much higher one down instead!! Mental.
So between noise hassle and scams Hanoi has turned out to be just a nessaccary evil as its the main transport hub for us to explore North Vietnam and move on to Laos.
To top this the ATM machine swallowed my Visa card which ended up being a pain in the arse as it was the weekend so we had to hit some friends up for a loan of a few quid (cheers Tania and Kathrine!!) Luckily I got travel insurance and the bank wired through money to me stress free, nearly.
The first night in Hanoi was a laugh, we went around in a rickshaw and had a few drinks in a cool little bar and talked with the manager there for ages about Vietnam and travel. Hanoi is full of intresting things and good people its just a lot of hassle finding them sometimes!
We booked a day trip for the next day to a place called Tam Coc and the old capital. It was 3 hours outside Hanoi and just what the doctor orderd. First in the morning we went to the ancient old capital of vietnam which was beautifull, really old asian palace situated in an area where the mountians just shoot out of the ground, really high and narrow so the look like pillars, very very exotic like! After lunch and a battery haggle we did aboat trip to Tam Coc itslef which is the same mountians but you can float around and under them on little boats as its all flooded rice paddies. The scenery was stunning and I nearly melted my camera. We had two girls rowing us for a few hours, it was very hot and I felt guilty getting paddeled around by girls so I have a crack at the rowing. Dee also had a go on the oars and we floated in circle for a bit then. We were the last back and jumped on the minibus back to Hanoi. Big sleep that night.
posted by Fionn at 10:55 PM
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