Hanoi. The final post of Vietnam (part 4) and last for my trip around parts of Asia. A great time and a great way to finish this adventure in what I like to think of as the Paris of Asia due to it's French influence, beauty of parts of the city and general metropolitan experience while still being well emersed in Vietnam's capital. Lots of fun, sights and food which may be why I was exhausted at the end of the trip and probably the sickest I had ever been in my life. I actually had to cancel a flight for the first time in my life in order to make it back to Canada via Japan for Christmas which was nerve racking also from a visa perspective as I only had 45 day tourist visa for Vietnam.
Day 30-42 Bus, Ferry and on to a Bigger Bus to get to Hanoi in about 2.5 hours. *Note: Arriving on Sunday's there are areas in the capital that are shutdown meaning you will need to walk a little more or suffer a taxi a bit out of the way. I walked of course.
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| Tight bus to a tight ferry, "watch your head" |
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Clearly I'm on the
backpacker trail
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Traffic seemed less than
Ho Chi Minh |
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| Some gates to the old town |
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24 hr shop or do they put all that away at closing?
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Lots of activity and scooters everywhere
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| Following Vincent and Tom |
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| Are the dogs on display for dinner? |
Hoan Kiem Lake in the centre, only a few minutes from my first apartment.
Hanoi being more expense meant I had to book multiple days at a time to ensure good accommodation competing with other travellers. I could only get this apartment for 4 nights.
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Staying near a big shopping mall
which I guess is a photo spot |
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| Everyone benefiting the no cars Sunday spots |
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| Met up with Jakov a buddy from Da Nang |
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One of the 5 Bun Cha places on this corner.
Apparently only one is the real deal, but this
one was great. They tell you "same same" |
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| Ta Hien Street |
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| Party party |
A video of the chaos...
Walking home early in the morning, another bday down. Awesome to see all the older ladies doing a morning workout on a street corner.
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| Another Bun Ma. Sort of ... |
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| You survived lunch again chick |
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| Vietnamese pride |
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| The big mall |
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| Needing to fix my Sanuks! |
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| $8 cad and double the weight |
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| Pretty good if the glue holds |
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| Opera House |
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| Idea of some of the old town above the crazy |
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| Free birthday drink! |
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| Another tasty hotpot |
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| Tasty sweet wine |
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| Tight on Ta Hein street |
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| Hoan Kiem Lake Temple |
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| why not?! |
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| Maybe got food poisoning |
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| Cha Ca Thang Long resto |
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| Me and Quynh |
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| St Joseph's French Church |
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| With a Jesus tree |
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| New apartment for 1 night! |
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Clean and quaint, but the outside
metal shops has horrific noise! |
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| All these aluminum bending shops... |
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| Apartment entrance at night |
Train street turned out to be a favourite spot. Lots of activity and anticipation waiting for one of the few trains to plow through. Wild experience.
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Met Welsh James earlier in the day.
Welsh are always good craic. |
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| They have these timetables to help tourist plan |
Is this it!!!???
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| Let's make some souvenirs |
Ok now it must be the big train??
Back to the bar district. All the bars turn everything off, bring everything in during the 3 minute police inspection raid. It loses its intensity when you see it more than one night.
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The usual cop raid at 12am
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| James, Abha with wild blindness! |
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| Grow up Brad! |
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| Time to move |
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| No room to stay with this guy |
Another example of the traffic chaos.
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| Nice boots |
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| A little Christmas |
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| Bay Seafood Buffet |
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| So hard to choose! |
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| Again I accepted the help |
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| Me, Joyce and Keong reunited in Hanoi! |
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| Some busy Aussie bar as we are close to Aussie |
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| How long have these been here? |
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| Construction in the night |
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| Wonderful tree |
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| It's almost all street food |
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| Parliament building |
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| finally found a big jug of water |
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| Working right on the street |
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Working remotely. 9am Calgary
meeting at 11pm Vietnam time |
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| Generally busy busy until about 11pm. |
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| More hotpot!! |
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| Phuong and I Hotpotting |
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"What you live in Hanoi and
never been to train street?" |
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| Looks like a race beginning? |
Staying near Central Station at this point in a brand new hotel that may not have been ready for guests.
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| Rooftop view of city |
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| Eco Nest, All I needed. |
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| Are these all coffee shops? Doesn't look relaxing |
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| Always drawn to these truss train bridges |
This is 4.7 stars on google!
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| Stacked up! |
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| The "chef" is up there |
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| Ran in to my new Finnish/Vietnamese friends |
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| And ran in to James again |
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| "Tom's bar" of course |
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| Bartender from Tom's Bar bought breaky, nice! |
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| Early morning at Train street |
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"Quan noi nhan dan", internal teeth/fangs
is an army slogan of the Vietnamese. |
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| This yellow, a common colour |
Posing for photos seems to be a big thing in Hanoi and in front of particular places like this coffee shop. I'm a little over it in the video...
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Thin rice paste cooked like a
crepe |
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| Very nice |
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| 566,000 dong or $30 Cad |
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| Lobby of my new apartment |
Vitamin apartment, Just go passed the kitchen to the elevator...?
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Probably my favourite apartment of Hanoi
In 2 weeks I stayed at 5 different ones.
This had the best bed!! |
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| $3! |
Took an afternoon walk around Truc Bach Lake and the bigger West Lake and area.
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Little island community
on Truc Bach Lake |
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| Island lunch |
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| Truc Bach Lake |
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| Old trolley bus |
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| Don't drink the water...dead fish |
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| Big bird for the bar |
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| $3.5 for a jager, red bull bag |
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| Den Thuy Trung Tien Temple |
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| D Thanh Nien bridge/road |
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| Sweet popcorn bear |
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| West Lake |
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| Tran Quoc Pagoda |
Walking along D Thanh Nien road between the two lakes.
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He told me I was a model, took
a bunch of photos and asked
for $20...no thanks. |
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| What's going on in the alley? |
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| Haircut...? |
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| $2 including a shave! |
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| Moved to the other side of the freeway |
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| That's a ton of bricks, hahaha! |
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| Not sure about the neighbourhood |
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| behind the wall |
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| take a break, hammock anywhere |
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| Nice apartment though |
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| sidewalks for walking, never... |
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| Pricy and not amazing |
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| A few places charge tax |
Another example of street restaurants which are everywhere. Common to eat squatting on a small stool.
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| Behind the wall. Owner raised price so I left |
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| back to my fav at the sushi resto |
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| Final lunch with Joyce |
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| Good, but I couldn't eat much |
Absolutely dying, but not wanting to miss a dinner with Elia I walked the 15 minutes to this more authentic type hotpot restaurant, Sin Quan 47 Bat Dan, that Elia had been and enjoyed before. I was hoping for something simple and standard which the hotpot was until the server cracked open a large egg which didn't look like a yolk...The odd form plotted in to the hotpot and it became one with our food I guess. Turned out to be a duck embryo called Balut!
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| Elia ate her part, but I barely ate a thing. Never been so sick. |
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duck embryo. looks like a
fetus to me! |
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| RIP Brad? |
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Apparently I was not allowed
to fly for a couple of days. |
A few days in bed eating nothing and sleeping 15-18 hrs per day. Moved my flight a a couple days later; the Vietjet flight was free to change, but not Westjet which cost me about $350 CAD extra...damn. When you are that sick you don't care...
Initially I had a flight for the morning, but thought I would miss my Japan flight back and also thought if I went to sleep I would never get up...so I went to and from the airport a few times to sort it out frm my airport hotel (15 minute walk each way) and made it on the redeye to Tokyo which probably killed me more. But I pulled it off! And found sleep at NRT which is in the top 5 airports I have been to so really a good choice to get a rest.
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| Good bye Hanoi |
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| Ok hotel, 15 min walk to airport |
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| Not overly relaxing |
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Going back and forth to
change my ticket |
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| Major line ups...I'm in it now! |
Hanoi and Vietnam was great...a country that reminded me of Mexico a little, but the prices and quality were miles above in comparison.
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| Back to Japan, getting cold! |
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| NRT Tokyo again |
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| Not doing good, so tired |
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| waited for this awesome couch! |
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| 10 more hours and bed! |
Literally no photos from Christmas as I slept for the whole 9 days and actually thought I may need to change my flight to Mexico for NYE! In the end I survived my 2 week illness that needed inhalers to get my lungs back (actually took 2 months to have them function properly again, maybe 3 months).
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| At mom's being cared for |
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| Medication note... |
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My old buddy Davy B in town
from Australia. Couldn't miss! |
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