Hanoi

I had been able to get a few hours of sleep in the rest area, although I did wake up at one point and didn't see my purse which led to a full blown panic attack before I realized it had just slipped below my other bags. I had secured everything pretty well below a table but I guess you never know what someone could do while you have ear plugs in and an eye mask on. I set my alarm for 7:00am so that I would have plenty of time to get to the 9:15am flight. Alyssa was already up so we spent some time online chatting with Jessica who was heading to the airport in Phoenix to catch her flight to meet up with us. Then we headed towards our gate. The airline had been emailing us status updates and gate information, so we were shocked when we arrived at our gate and found that the gate had changed. We had to run to the other side of the airport to where the new gate was and arrived just as they were finishing their final call. Once we got through the additional security, I could finally relax. I get really nervous about missing flights. It's just not worth it if you can be there early and ensure everything goes smoothly.
It was only a 2 1/2 hour flight from Singapore to Hanoi, so we got there around 11:00am. We needed a visa for Vietnam but we had already gotten our "visa on arrival" paperwork online, so all we needed to do was pay $45 and get the visa. Unfortunately, there were about 100 other people who needed to do the same thing and no instructions from anyone on what to do when we arrived. Everyone was standing in a line but it was clear that nothing was happening, so after some investigation we realized that you were supposed to turn in your paperwork at a different window and then come back to this line to pay. After doing so, we informed all of the other travelers who were just standing there like sheep of what they needed to do. It's so funny that people don't even question things, they just do what everyone else is doing. We got our visas and headed to baggage claim. It took well over an hour for our bags to come out, which worried us because we had done two plane transfers and we were afraid our bags might have gotten lost. Alyssa even did a little dance when her bag came out, lol.
We headed out towards the buses because our hostel had recommended we take the VietNam minibus from the airport into town. We were fine with that because it only cost $2 vs the $18 to have a van pick us up. The issue with the bus was that you had to wait until the bus was full to leave. When we got on, there were only two other people on it, so we had to wait about an hour for another flight to arrive and the bus to fill up. Once the bus was finally full, we set off towards Hanoi. It was a long ride to get there (about an hour) and we got our first taste of driving in Vietnam. There are SO many people on motorcycles and no one really follows any rules. It was pretty crazy but noting we're not used to after Central and South America. It was fortunate that one of the ladies on the bus spoke English because the driver didn't and we couldn't figure out which stop we needed to get off at.
When we arrived at the bus terminal, our hostel had said that it was an easy 15 minute walk to get there. However, they had given no indication on how to walk there. We asked the English speaking girl on our bus, who pointed us in the right direction but of course we got lost and it took about an hour of asking random people before we finally found it. We were exhausted from poor sleep and from traipsing around with our heavy bags. Upon checking in, we realized that we hadn't booked our hostel for that night. We had miscalculated how long our flights would take and had only booked for the following night on. Luckily, the receptionist was able to move some people around and find a room for us. The place we were staying is called "B & B Hostel Hanoi" and they people working there could not be more friendly. They insisted that we sit down our bags, have some tea and watermelon and relax. The receptionist then fed us chocolate bonbons and gave us advice about the city. Already looking better than Australia, lol.
We checked into our room which was exactly like staying at a nice hotel, with three beds, our own bathroom, flat screen TV etc.

We changed into some warmer clothes (since northern Vietnam is surprisingly cold) and headed out in search of dinner. We ended up at a restaurant that served Pho because that sounded delicious to both of us. One of the guys working there spoke English, so we were able to order easily and got chicken ramen for $2.50- I love how cheap it is!

We then wandered around the city for a few hours, checking out the street markets and shops. I needed to buy some tampons which I am only including in this blog because it is surprisingly a very hard thing to find in many countries, this one in particular. We searched four shops (including a super market that had two rows of pads but no tampons) before I found a little corner market that must have been catering to tourists. It's those sort of differences that always stick out to us. I also stopped to get some boba tea which was really delicious.

It's amazing how many people here speak English. I feel like an asshole for not knowing any Vietnamese, so I'm determined to try and learn a few words tomorrow.

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