Monday, 10/21/2024
Woke up without an alarm at about 7:30am and decided to just stay up and start my day and hopefully my adjustment to the new time zone.
Showered and dressed back into the same clothes I had worn on the trip over. I am travelling very light, and would be repeat wearing many things, and will do laundry either in sink or via laundry service when I can, but really thinking I should have brought a second set of casual clothes, as I cannot wash them unless I sit around with nothing on all day while waiting.
I went down to the lobby to ask where the breakfast was (I am sure they told me, but I had forgotten).
They let me know it was in the restaurant/bar on the 6th floor. So back up I went were I found a large dining room with the buffet setup as well as the large open roof top bar area where I actually chose to sit. Had a nice big breakfast of mostly western style foods (Sausage, bacon, fried potatoes, chicken, cheese, fried rice, tomato slices and orange juice).
I sat there reading on my Kindle and getting more food occasionally for about an hour, enjoying the cooler morning air.
I returned to my room to cool off though after a bit. While the temperatures are not bad, only in the 70s or 80s F (low 20s C), the humidity is crazy high (probably 80% or more) so you feel like you just got out of a fully clothed shower after a while.
Today was a mostly free day for me, no plans or tasks that needed to be done. I sat in the room and read for another hour until about 10:00am when I decided it was time to go explore the old quarter of Hanoi.
My first task though was to find the hotel I will be staying in when I return to Hanoi in 3 weeks. I wanted to make sure I knew where it was if I had to walk again to find it, and the hotel was not marked well on Google Maps (the spot on the map did not list the hotel there.)
I reached the spot where Google Maps said it was, but there was nothing there. Closest I could find was a large hotel under renovation, but it did not look like the place I was to stay (and was no way going to be ready in 3 weeks!).
I eventually figured out the building addresses and realized that Google Maps was putting me in the wrong area. Using the addresses I finally found it about 100m (328 feet) up the street. It even showed the name on the map, but if you searched the name or address, would drop you in wrong spot.
Just goes to show you can never rely completely on Google Maps, and this is not something I can correct like when the pin is placed in wrong spot, it was correct, but the street info overlay built into the application was wrong.
Next, I decided to just wander up and down the streets and check out the local food places and businesses that might be of interest to me later, and I also wanted to find a shop that I could buy a bottle of Coke as I was thirsty now.
I found plenty of shops with cans, or even 2-liters or I would find the smaller bottles, but they were not chilled. I finally found a store though and bought my drink, then went back to the hotel to cool off for a bit and search for a stationary store online.
I had forgot to pack my blank journal when I left, and had not seen any during my walk (and I was looking for them).
I found a shop, but it was about 1.2km (.75 miles) away, so went back out and headed into that area.
However, as I was walking, I also was checking all the shops I passed, and noticed a shop selling notebooks at about half the distance. They had what I was looking for so I bought it (for $2) and went back to the hotel.
It was now lunch time, so I went out and looked for the banh mi sandwich shop I had seen earlier that looked like it might be good for lunch. I could not recall where it was, so took me about 20 minutes to find it (was much closer than I had recalled)
Place was sitting in a narrow little alleyway open only to pedestrians and scooters, no cars. I sat at a table setup right outside the shop on the edge of the roadway. While I was eating a short rain shower came through, but the awnings above kept me dry. Had a nice banh mi and a Coke for $4.
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| At the Don Don Banh Mi restaurant. |
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| Alley view from the restaurant table. |
Once done with lunch, I continued to wander the other streets and alleys to find new places and also taking a few photos along the way. The rain kept coming back, so I eventually was quite damp, but as it was warm, and the rain was warm, it had a cooling effect and felt nice. And while my shirt, shoes, and socks got damp, they were not soaked.
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| Typical Street view in the old quarter. |
I found my way back to the hotel so I could sit and dry off for a bit and then wrote in the journal the events up to the present time.
Earlier in the day we had received a message on WhatsApp that the tour leader would be coming by the hotel later in the day to pick up our passports so they could get the Laos visas. But as a few people had not yet arrived in town, an exact time was not given.
Note, we had all been asked to join the WhatsApp group created to facilitate communication amongst the riders and tour crew a few weeks prior to the trip.
I did put the word out to see if anyone else was staying in the hotel or nearby, but no response other than from the Canadian couple who were just leaving Canada and would not be here till tomorrow. They were staying at the hotel I was at.
I know Joe is still on his hike, so will not be back into Hanoi till later tonight, but did not know where he was staying.
But shortly after I read all the posts, I saw that Jerry and his friend Atti had arrived at the same hotel and that the tour leader was nearby, so I went down stairs to be there when he arrived.
I found Jerry and Atti in the lobby and spent a few minutes talking with them and shortly after Tan, the guide, showed up. We handed over our passports and the 2 head shot photos they needed for the Laos visas. He will return them tomorrow sometime, probably when we meet as a group for dinner tomorrow night.
He did let us know that they will be picking us up Wednesday morning in a van to take us to the edge of town where the bikes are located. That will be nice, not having to fight the heavy Hanoi traffic first thing in the ride!
I mentioned that Jerry, Joe, Atti and myself should grab dinner tonight. Joe was still not responding, so probably in transit somewhere, but Jerry and Atti thought it was good idea before they went off to their rooms to clean up from their own travels (though it had only been a short 2-hour flight for them over from Thailand!)
I returned to my room as well to relax and went out on the balcony to get a nice view with the sun, which had finally come out for a bit. A bit later I did hear back from Joe, but he was going to dine with his daughter that night, so would not be joining us for dinner, but perhaps for drinks afterward.
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| Hanoi street view with the sun finally making an appearance. |
I let Jerry and Atti know and we decided to head out about 5:00pm to find a place to eat. (This is all going on via WhatsApp or Facebook).
Jerry had gotten a recommendation for a place serving steaks from the hotel, but as we tried to find it, we came to realize the directions were far from clear and eventually gave up. We just wandered around for a bit to check out shops as they too wanted to see what was in the area.
Jerry made a stop at the pharmacy for something he needed and at the ATM to get more local currency. We then finally walked past a place serving western style food which was what we were all interested in that night. (Burgers and Steaks). I actually had a small pizza and a Coke which cost me about $11.
We then went back to the hotel to hang out at the roof top bar and wait to hear if Joe was going to join us for drinks later. We had just ordered some drinks when Joe let me know he was done with dinner and asking where we were at. I let him know and he walked over to the hotel and joined us.
We then sat and listened to Joe talk about the 2 weeks of hiking in north Vietnam that he had just completed, and also talked about Jerry and Atti’s ride in Nepal earlier in the year, and all of our hopes for this ride in Vietnam and Laos.
I also talked a bit about my ride in the UK that summer as well.
Joe then left us to return to his hotel and Jerry and Atti returned to their room. I decided to turn in for the night and well as I wanted to get the journal for the day done.
I checked my watch and I had walked almost 12km (8 miles) that day! No wonder my feet were hurting (my shoes were not faring well either, already had a hole in sole and thinking they will need replaced soon). Tomorrow I will go explore the small lake on the edge of the old quarter and we all had talked about going over to the train street, a local tourist attraction, as well.
Tomorrow is also the group dinner as all the riders will be in town by then and the full team will be there for us all to meet each other. We can also get our documents back and any last bits of info that might be important for the upcoming ride!
Goodnight!
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