Friday 6th March 2015 – On to Hanoi – meet up with Rupert and Thuy

Friday 6th March 2015

Up at 7.30am so that Sue could wash her hair, then instead of a repeat in the lounge, we went down to the restaurant for breakfast. It was a fabulous spread, pork steaks loads of exotic fruit and cosmopolitan hot selection. Pork dumplings gyoza and nice potato with bacon, there was also some hot sauce next to this dish, which was a belter. There were also lots of nice pastries and breads. The temptation is to eat till we burst, but we kept it in moderation.

On the way back to the room we explored what we found to be the fifth floor lounge, which gave us a reverse photo op back up tot eh 21st floor. Back to the room to pack, we checked out in the lounge. I can’t do OLCI for our flight today – presumably a Vietnam thing – so I printed booking page instead.

The taxi to the airport gave us our expected wild ride. Just summed up as traffic chaos that mostly works. The big headache is cars and bikes blocking junctions blocked so only a few vehicles get through at a time at certain crossroads. A nice touch is the countdown feature on traffic lights , both on green and red.

The taxi dropped us off at the Domestic Terminal at 1130, and by 1150 we were checked in, bags tagged and dropped and through security into the Sasco Lounge near gate 12. There were long queues at check in again, but bag drop was empty – all very efficient too. The lounge was almost deserted, it is a Priority Pass and has great food and drink selection and free wi-fi. Though it did seem that the BBC News website was blocked. (but the BBC News app on the iPad worked fine), Facebook chat was also blocked. In the corner of the lounge was a big massage chair which we both had a go on – it was really powerful pummelling backs and legs. We only had drinks, as we still full of breakfast.

At boarding time we walked down to our gate – on the way we heard a call to gate two, which made us lengthen our stride a bit, but it was for the previous flight at that gate. As is is a bussing gate, they called our flight our flight straight after. We were bussed to the plane, which is a Jetstar Pacific Airbus A321-200, it has 2-2 config with very wide seats. We are in 1F and 1G.- Pushback was 1400 with wheels up at 1417. Flight time is 1 hour 45 minutes, so just another hop by our recent standards.

Later – we arrived on time. It was very cloudy on the way in, so we saw little of the Hanoi terrain until we were almost on the ground and the bits we did see looked WET, with many paddy fields in evidence. Our bags were among the first off again.

It was at this point that our first major hitch of the trip occurred – a car that I had booked and paid for through SinhTravel was no where to be seen. There should have been a driver holding a card with my name on. In Saigon, it would have taken us half an hour to scan the crowd of cards, but here, there were only two drivers – neither for us. I tried ringing the office but couldn’t get through. Sue emailed Rupert and he rang. He will get his partner Thuy to speak to the company. He suggested we get a taxi. We had a conversation with a driver, who rung someone for us but the language barrier was difficult to overcome

Rupert helped us brilliantly, we got a taxi into town and en route he rung us to tell us to divert to the travel company offices, where they were expecting us. On the way in, it was drizzling quite heavily and it is noticeably colder than Saigon. We drove over a big new bridge towards the city, it got very busy and the Vietnam moped swarm appeared. The taxi ride cost us 400,000 VND and he dropped us outside the travel office, which took some finding on a tight narrow back street.

The girls in the office sorted us out. They reimbursed the taxi fare in cash, after I had chased the taxi down the road having thought I had left my phone in it (I hadn’t). They also gave us vouchers for the hotel and for the boat trip tomorrow. Once the paperwork was sorted they called a taxi to toe us to the hotel and said the hotel would pay when we arrived. The taxi took us to the hotel Hong Ngoc Dynastie where we checked into room 708. The hotel was a very pleasant surprise – modern, with a nice room, huge bed lots of personalised goodies a huge shower and 69 channels on the TV, as well. We got sorted and rang Rupert to arrange to meet – he said he would come to the hotel about 7.30pm, which gave us an hour or so to get ready.

Once we had changed, we went down to the bar of the hotel and had a Ha Noi Bia each with Rupert and his partner Thuy. We worked it out that it was over thirty years since we had actually seen each other, so we had a great catch up, then they offered to take us for a meal. We got a taxi to Quan an Ngon restaurant which is huge with lots of different preparation stations of different ethnic foods. We left the ordering to Thuy and ended up with lots of nice food – huge prawns, bbq beef and lots of weeds as Rupert called them. Herbs to us. The staff prepared some of the food for us and it was a lovely meal, as well more beer. It was a great evening.

After we had eaten, we all got a taxi past the Hanoi Hilton to our hotel. Rupert and Thuy were off to a music bar, but it was a bit late for us, so we went back to the hotel ready for an early start in the morning.