Last Updated on December 9, 2019
After almost five months of living in South Korea, the hubby was finally able to get a week off to take a vacation out of the country with me for Thanksgiving and my birthday. Our initial plan was to go to Bali for the week, but that plan changed when we discovered that November was the start of rainy season in Bali – plus flights were pretty long. We opted for a Vietnam getaway instead! We had a difficult time deciding where in Vietnam to go. There is so much to see and Vietnam is fairly large. Instead of trying to cram as much in as possible, we decided to stick with Northern Vietnam, right around Hanoi. *Note: No, this was not a three week vacation. I’ve just been a little busy preparing for the trip, on the trip, and then unpacking/recovering from the trip.
We started our adventure off flying in to Hanoi from Seoul – about a four-hour direct flight. We flew Vietjet, which we weren’t too impressed by. The check-in process was torturous; we waited in line for nearly 45 minutes, once we got to the desk, the paperwork in order to fly took quite a long time, we attempted to purchase our bags online, but were unable to do so, so we had to purchase our bags at the airport and they would not accept cash, so we had to hold up the line while the hubby went to go find an ATM. After that debacle, we were only allowed one personal bag per person on board, and it had to be under a certain weight – they weighed my carry-on bag to make sure and scrutinized the size very carefully. After being at the counter for nearly a half hour, we were then released to a waiting area where we had to sit and wait for our checked bags to be inspected before we were released to go through security to get to our gate. After waiting for about 15 minutes, the security line was getting long and we were cutting it close on time. We asked the Vietjet counter if we were free to leave and they were surprised we were still there waiting, as if we knew when we were allowed to leave.
Once getting through another 45-minute line to get past security, we had to run to make our flight. There were flight attendants standing down the hallway asking everyone who was on the flight (which wasn’t just us running late). Once on the flight, the experience didn’t improve much. There was absolutely no service or accommodations, not even free water (I had to pay $2 to get some). Once in the air, the flight went quickly and we were landing in Hanoi before we knew it. The process to get out of the airport was a whole other process. In order to visit Vietnam, you much apply for a temporary visa. We did this online a few weeks prior to going and expected the process to be smooth. When we arrived, even though we had completed our visa paperwork, they made us fill out more paperwork, wait for a period of time, and then were called up to a counter for them to take our picture and approve us to finally go through customs (another long wait). FINALLY, we got our luggage and were released into Vietnam.
Prior to leaving the airport, we purchased SIM cards for our phone, arranged for our transportation from and to the airport, and got some local currency, Vietnamese Dong, out from an ATM. We were warned that we had to be very careful with getting money out, as Vietnam is notorious for credit card information being stolen. As we were getting our cash out at the airport, there were three unoccupied ATMs next to us, yet there was a man hovering just a foot away from us trying to see over our shoulders and looking very suspicious. When we were about done, he turned around and left. Luckily, no suspicious activity was found on our credit card after that incident, but we were rather skeptical.
Our first impression after getting out of the airport was chaos. The driving in Vietnam was absurd! Scooters everywhere! You would see four, sometimes five people piled on one scooter – including infants, simply being held between two people. Traffic rules did not exist. When a car or scooter wanted to pass another car, change lanes, go through an intersection, or any other reason, they would honk. Although, lanes are painted on the roads, they mean nothing to the locals. The drivers would pass on the shoulder, drive in the middle of lanes, make their own lanes wherever there was space. Needless to say, you wouldn’t catch me dead driving in Vietnam (otherwise that would probably be the outcome…).
We arrived at our first hotel of the trip where we would stay for two nights, called Pan Pacific. The great thing about Vietnam is what you can get for your money. We were able to stay in five-star hotels the whole trip and pay for maybe what a two-star hotel would cost in the states. The Pan Pacific was right outside the main area, the Old Quarter, of Hanoi. Once we checked in (and got our room upgraded to a suite for free!) we walked around to see some of the local sights right outside of our hotel before grabbing dinner. The Tran Quoc Pagoda was right outside of our hotel (even our room had a perfect view of it). We wandered around there and got a few pictures. We asked a man taking pictures of his wife if he would get a picture of us. He was pleased to do so. His wife even held up her phone’s light for better lighting. After we thanked him, he asked where we were from. Our go-to response on the trip was New York, as everyone knows where that is. The man was in awe that we were American. We thanked him again and started walking back to our hotel, but soon heard the man running up to us asking if he could get a picture with us. Maybe a little sketchy? But he seemed harmless enough. We agreed and he started calling us his New York friends, as if so proud to have met us!
After dinner at the hotel, we walked into the Old Quarter, where we explored the Night Market. Getting there was a whole different experience than driving. In order to cross a street, traffic wouldn’t stop for you or obey traffic signals, so you practically had to close your eyes and just walk into oncoming traffic and hope they wouldn’t hit you. It was slightly terrifying. I was surprised that we made it to the Night Market in one piece, but glad we did. We were overwhelmed with the number of vendors lining the streets with all types of goods from shoes, clothing, jackets, to electronics and other accessories. Apparently, weekends are motor-free – meaning cars and mopeds are not allowed down the streets during the weekend, which made things much less chaotic.
We walked past a few vendors and couldn’t help but stop to look at things or try things on. Once you do that, it feels like a trap. If you show any interest in an item, they will tell you the price and then have you make your best offer. If you say no and try to walk away, it’s nearly impossible. It’s a great strategy to get something cheap, but if you really aren’t sure if you want it, you may still get conned into purchasing it. I did this with a pair of shoes. I tried them on but was not able to think about it long enough or feel how they fit, and just jumped to the gun and bought them at about $15. I wore them around the next day and realized I hated them, which resulted in me throwing a perfectly good pair of shoes in a dumpster by the end of our trip! (Something I would never dream of doing, but I suppose it was only a $15 pair of shoes).
The remainder of the trip that we spent in Hanoi turned into full days of shopping. An appropriate time of year, might I add. Although, all the prices stay the same year-round, we were in Hanoi over Thanksgiving and Black Friday. We would probably have been shopping all the deals if we were back in the states, BUT the deals in Vietnam were so incredible, that we got at least twice as much stuff as we would have anywhere else. Granted, some things in Vietnam are considered knock-offs, like the North Face jackets or electronics, but they are still all good quality. All of these products are made in Vietnam, so they use the same exact materials with just minuscule changes or defects, if any. It’s best to inspect any product you purchase to make sure it works, is the right size, or has no noticeable issues.
Our second day in Hanoi – our first full day – we started off with our hotel’s buffet breakfast. Since the hotel we were staying at was five-star, the buffet breakfast was quite the equivalent; breads, pastries, fruits, yogurts, juices, scrambles, omelets, potatoes, vegetables, pho, and other Vietnamese essentials, overwhelmed the restaurant. We had no clue where to begin or when to end. We cabbed to the Old Quarter where we walked around a bit to work off breakfast before heading to the Hanoi Hilton, also known as the Hoa Lo Prison Memorial, where the Vietnamese kept and tortured many American pilots and servicemen during the Vietnam War. According to the hubby, they tried to make it seem like our soldiers were treated much better than they actually were, almost re-staging a better vision of what actually happened.
Later in the afternoon, we purchased tickets to the popular Hanoi Water Puppet Show. If you visit Hanoi, you are bound to see tons of advertisements for these shows. The story goes that back when the locals would work in the rice paddy fields and they would flood, they created these little puppets to entertain themselves. The tradition has evolved into these staged water puppet shows that are about an hour long. To be honest, it wasn’t my ideal form of entertainment (to put it nicely), but it certainly was interesting, and worth the experience.
After our show, we had to get back to our hotel, where we booked a massage. The best part about Vietnam is how cheap luxury can be. We each had a 60-minute massage. I had a Vietnamese massage, where they work a little harder on your muscles, whereas the hubby decided to do more of a relaxing and aromatic massage. They were both fantastic!
The next day, we had booked a trip to Ninh Binh. Ninh Binh is known as the Ha Long Bay on land, and about two hours south of Hanoi. We booked the trip with a group tour, which was just a day-trip from Hanoi, but planned on staying one extra night in Ninh Binh at a local resort. The tour was awesome, and I’d highly recommend! We started off visiting Hoa Lu ancient capital where we visited the Dinh King Temple and the Le King Temple. To be honest, the history was not all that interesting to me, but the architecture and sights were really cool to experience. Afterwards, we stopped to take a bike ride through the countryside before grabbing lunch at a traditional Vietnamese buffet set up for our group. Frankly, we both figured we were going to lose weight on the trip. None of the food we had experienced, by far, was not too appealing.
Our next stop was Trang An Wharf, where we all were guided on small row boats on the river through caves – some of which were where King Kong was filmed! After this, we took our bus to Mua Cave, where we climbed over 500 stone steps to an absolutely stunning view of the countryside and Ngo Dong River. There is a dragon at the top of this climb that many people try to reach and get pictures with. This stone dragon stretches over the top of the mountain with a steep drop-off to the Ngo Dong River. We played it safe and stayed on solid rock, but many other daredevils were trying to climb across the dragon’s narrow scales. No thanks. Once we got back down, we were able to experience walking a single boardwalk that winded over a lily pond surrounded by beautiful lily pads and the mountain backdrop.
As the rest of our group headed back to Hanoi on the bus, we had set up a car service to take us to a resort in Ninh Binh called the Emeralda. We drove for about 45 minutes to an hour in the middle of nowhere. We arrived to our resort in the dark, checked in, and were driven by golf cart to our private cabin. There was no one around and it was super eerie getting there at night. I was not loving it and wanted to leave the next morning rather than stay an extra night like we had planned. After a good night’s sleep and seeing the resort during the daylight (and other signs of life) I was much more optimistic about the resort. In fact, it was such a cool stop on our trip, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys nature or relaxing. Would I go there again? Nope. Probably not. Nature gives me anxiety and relaxing is not one of my strengths. Actually, it’s probably one of my biggest weaknesses.
The hubby forced relaxation upon me during this part of the trip, though. We had a nice buffet breakfast, lounged by the pool (where I jumped in and swam around to get a little workout in), then had a 2.5-hour spa appointment. Yes. Two and a half hours of laying still!! Almost my birthday and I was put through that torture! The appointment started off with a body scrub where they scrubbed off all of your dead skin cells prior to an hour massage, finished-off by a facial where they played with my face for an hour. People touching my face, on top of having to lay still is NO. BUENO. We ended the day with a good dinner by the pool and a glass of wine before calling it a night.
The next morning was unlike any other I’ve experienced before. It was Thanksgiving Day. I’ve never woken up without the anticipation of making a delicious meal and spending the day with family. Instead, we woke up at our resort in Ninh Binh, had a buffet breakfast and headed back to Hanoi. We decided to stay at a new hotel this time around in Hanoi called, L’Opera Hanoi. This hotel was super sleek and modern – my pick for my birthday hotel! Our room was not ready yet, so we went to grab coffee at The Coffee House – one of the oldest coffee houses in Hanoi. I enjoyed a matcha latte, and the hubby somehow drank the Vietnamese coffee (wayyy too strong and acidic for my taste). We went back to our hotel and were able to check in to our awesome room to freshen up before heading out to shop and eat our “Thanksgiving Meal”. Turkey, stuffing and potatoes were not on the menu, unfortunately. We ended up at a burger place called, Chops (we may have eaten here three times on our trip…). We were over trying the Vietnamese food and decided a good ole burger was the way to go. We ended our evening with a cocktail at the hotel bar, some ice cream, and another massage at the hotel spa before bringing in the big 28!
Happy birthday to me! Yes, Black Friday was my 28th birthday. We ordered room service for breakfast before our shuttle bus was to come pick us up for our cruise with Orchid Cruises around Ha Long Bay. We had commented earlier that we had not seen many, if any, Americans on our trip, but mainly tourists from Australia, South Africa, or Europe. We got on our shuttle to find two people from New York! Pathetic, but it was a nice little birthday gift to bring a little bit of New York into my life. Unfortunately, these two were real New Yorkers… aka, a bit standoffish. I tried to make conversation but they were not too receptive. I did find out that the woman had just come from a work trip in Beijing and the guy was her gay friend who came out to visit her on their trip to Vietnam. He worked in PR and was pretty hush hush about his job, but found out she worked in events in New York! What a small world. That’s exactly what I did in New York! As much as I wanted to talk work and ask her all the details about her job and her life in New York, I bit my tongue. I figured trying to talk work wouldn’t be the best topic of discussion on her vacation – plus, she even mentioned she was dreading going back to work and the city.
We arrived to the port where we checked in and boarded a small boat that took our group of about 20 people out to our cruise ship. (It definitely wasn’t a ship, maybe more of just a really big yacht). As we boarded, we were sprinkled with petals of roses from above and given a welcome drink before we all sat down for our buffet lunch. After lunch, we were given keys to our room. The hubby surprised me and got us the suite! This room was incredible! It took up probably 1/3 of one of the floors of the boat with a whole wall of windows looking out onto Ha Long Bay, our own private balcony off the back of the boat, a jacuzzi bathtub where you could soak and watch boats sail by, and the best part – a huge round bed where you could lounge and watch the gorgeous view of the bay pass you by.
After taking in the luxurious lifestyle we got to live for the next day, we boarded another small boat to take us to shore of Cat Ba Island, where we hiked through a cave. After our excursion, we returned to our boat for a happy hour and cooking class, where we all got to make our own fresh spring rolls prior to dinner. We headed down to dinner and I was surprised to see a spot in the dining room reserved just for me! Birthday decorations and candles covered the table and streamers were strung from the ceiling. The dinner wasn’t my ideal birthday dinner – I think I ate mostly garnishes and vegetables, since the meat didn’t look as appetizing as I would have hoped. I was honestly excited to get back to Korea for a little bit bigger selection of foods to choose from.
Our last day of our trip, and on our cruise, began at 6:30 AM for a Tai Chi lesson. Two words — Bad. Idea. This was the longest half hour of my life (okay, not including the massage in Ninh Binh), but the hubby and I were the only two people from our cruise who showed up for the Tai Chi lesson. Our instructor really tested my patience. The sun was rising over Ha Long Bay and beyond beautiful, but all I supposed to be doing was taking one minute to breathe in, one minute to breathe out multiplied like 30 times. It. Was. TORTURE! I was relieved to be released from that activity so I could run around the deck and take pictures and get all of my anxious energy out. Luckily, our next activity was kayaking! All of the kayaks were already in the water attached to the boat that we could hop in and wander around the bay for an hour. We got back, ate breakfast, packed, and boarded our boat back to shore to catch our shuttle back to Hanoi.
We arrived back in Hanoi and had about six hours before we needed to start heading to the airport to catch our flight back to South Korea. We didn’t trust leaving all of our luggage at a luggage storage facility, so we ended up reserving a room at a cheap hotel in town to be able to keep our luggage and figure out how to pack all of our purchases from the trip. We spent a good hour repacking and the rest of our time wandering around Hanoi getting any last-minute deals we could find – and, of course, one more burger from Chops to hold us over until we made it back to Korea the next morning.
Overall, our trip to Vietnam was an interesting experience. I wouldn’t say I would ever have the desire to go back to visit, but it was one of those adventures that I’m glad to be able to say I’ve done. This was our first trip out of South Korea that we’ve taken together since we arrived in Asia five months ago. We were definitely due for a trip! At this time, I’ve only been to South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, but can confidently say that I’m much more of a European traveler. I miss all of the charming cities that practically every European country has, the beautiful architecture, the languages (that I can somewhat make out – at least much better than Asian languages), and the food. If anything, this year will be one for the books. I am so happy to be experiencing different parts of the world and creating more and more amazing memories to last a lifetime! Until next time, Catch the Drift!
Ta ta for now, drifters!
XO,
Kylie
Missed last week’s update? Check it out right here!
