Welcome to chaotic Hanoi

After days of waiting for my visa, my flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi finally left at 12 in the morning. After landing in Hanoi, I immediately took a taxi to the hostel and checked in there.

I brought my things to my room, talked to the people in my room for a bit and then left. I didn’t have a real goal, I just wanted to see the district a little. The traffic on the streets was quite chaotic. In fact, it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

Crossing the street, on the other hand, was partly a real disaster. After I set off, I first waited at a pedestrian traffic light to cross it when it turned green. When the traffic light turned green and no one stopped, I understood how crossing the street works: just walk. In fact, it works quite well, you just have to be very careful.

I ended up trying to get to the famous Train Street. But after looking for the entrance for a while, I finally gave up. I walked a little further through the streets before I made my way back to the hostel in the late afternoon.

Experiencing the life in Vietnam

In the evening I went out to dinner with a girl from my room. We first looked at the restaurants on the street from the hostel, but they were too expensive for us. So we went further through the streets and tried to find something cheap. We found what we were looking for after a short time, but just as we were about to look at the map, the last places were snatched away right in front us.

Then we had to keep looking. After about half an hour we found a relatively cheap local restaurant.

While we were looking for a restaurant, we were repeatedly approached by the staff at each restaurant and given the menu right under our noses. Simply ignoring or shaking your head didn’t work. They still grabbed you by the arm and tried to drag you into their restaurant.

Exploring the Train Street

The next morning we had breakfast in the hostel and then went to Train Street together again. This time we found the way there too. There we sat down in a café and drank a coconut coffee. These are very well known in Vietnam and actually taste pretty good.

Unfortunately we weren’t there at the time the train runs through Train Street. Nevertheless, the place had a special vibe that I really liked.

Around noon I went back to the hostel because my bus to Cát Bà drove at half past one. Since I had had enough of cities after Kuala Lumpur, one night in Hanoi was enough for me.

Heading to Cát Bà

The bus ride to Cát Bà took about three hours. To get to Cát Bà I had to take the ferry for 10 minutes. When I arrived on the island, I was taken directly to my hostel by bus. From what I have experienced so far, Vietnam is really well designed for backpackers. And also really cheap.

I only arrived at the hostel in the evening. After resting a bit in the room, I went downstairs for dinner. I spent the evening there with two Germans.

Exploring Ha Long Bay

For the next day I had booked a tour through Halong Bay National Park by boat. The tour went directly from the hostel, so everyone on the boat was in the same hostel as me.

At 8:30 am, after breakfast, we were picked up by bus and taken to the port of Cát Bà. There we went on our boat. This had two floors. The lower one was a closed room and the upper one was a terrace. Of course we all sat upstairs to get a better view. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t so nice. It was very cloudy and it started to rain again and again.

After leaving the port, we first drove past a Floating Fishing Village. From there we went into the national park. There we drove for a while through the different rock formations until we finally stopped to go for a swim.

After everyone was back on board, we drove on and got lunch. We got a few typical Asian things but also fries.

Kayaking through the Bay

After lunch we stopped at our second stop. There we went kayaking. As a large group we paddled through tunnels and past all the rocks. In the water we also saw some jelly fishs. On the way back we had to paddle through a tunnel that had a very strong current. It took a lot of strength and endurance to finally get through there.

After over an hour we were all back on the boat. We then drove to a last stop where we could go swimming again. On the way there we sat together in small groups on the boat, talked and played cards.

After we could swim one last time, we drove back to the port of Cát Bà. In the afternoon a few of the clouds pulled back and the sun slowly came out.

I have to say, the boat tour through Halong Bay didn’t really blow me away. It was really nice but in the end everything looks the same there. So if you just sit on the boat all day and drive across the water, it can get a little boring at some point. Nevertheless it was a beautiful day. I met nice people and I especially enjoyed kayaking.

In the evening I had dinner with a few people, played cards and billiards.

Around half past ten I went into my room and planned my next day, since I had no idea where to go. Finally I decided to travel to Sa Pat he next day.

Hiking up a mountain in the heat

Since the bus to Sa Pa came at 5 pm., I still had time to do something during the day. Together with a German boy, whom I met on Cát Bà the first evening, I drove to Cát Bà Nationalpark by scooter.

Then we hiked up a mountain. In contrast to the previous day, it was very sunny and quite warm. Of course, hiking up a mountain with numerous steps in high temperatures is quite exhausting. The last piece in particular was quite dangerous as we had to climb up the rocks. Completely wet and sweaty, we finally arrived at the viewpoint.

But the strenuous climb was worth it for the view. From the vantage point we could look over the whole nationalpark. After we had rested a little at the first viewpoint, we hiked up to a second viewpoint. The ascent there took no longer than 10 minutes. But the way through the rocks was again quite adventurous.

The descent, on the other hand, was fairly easy and we were back down very quickly. We then drove into town, where I bought some snacks for the bus ride.

Taking an overnight bus to Sa Pa

I then spent the rest of the afternoon in the hostel waiting for my bus. I took an overnight bus that arrived in Sa Pa the next morning.

It was the first time I took an overnight bus. In contrast to the overnight ferry I took on the Philippines, I was pleasantly surprised.

Everyone had a seat set up like a lounger and a warm blanket. However, the seat was very narrow. Still, I was able to sleep for a few hours.

At four o’clock in the morning we arrived in Sapa. However, no one left the bus and all the lights were turned off. Me and girl on the bus got pretty confused after that. Since the bus drivers didn’t speak English either, we decided to just do what the others were doing. We then slept again and at 6 am we were allowed to leave the bus and make our way to our accommodations. I don’t know why we weren’t allowed to leave as soon as we arrived.

If you want to know what I experienced in Sa Pa, please have a look at my next posts Trekking through the rice fields in Sa Pa – Vietnam Travel Diary.