Hanoi - Day 2

I woke up at 6:10am and worked for about 40 minutes to clear my texts, WhatsApp messages and emails down to their normal number of "unread" which is usually something I need to either action, follow up on or upcoming reservation confirmations that I want to be able to access quickly so leave them unread until after my trip.

I had a great sleep, I went to sleep around 10pm and slept straight through.  Its possible I got up to pee in the night but I can't remember - yeah, I did because I remember turning my CPAP on.

At around 7:30am I got up and started moving around, opened the curtains a little bit and got ready to have a shower.  Mom woke up, she didn't sleep well at all last night, thinks she only got a few hours.  At one point she said she was in the bathroom reading on her ipad for about 40 mins.  I wondered if her stomach was upset but she said no it was so the light didn't bother me.  I told her going forward not to worry about that because it won't keep me up - if the light bothers me I'll just turn over, it's not enough light that it should be disruptive.  She said even though she didn't sleep well she relaxed. We have a free day today so she can have a nap later if she wants.

I texted a client this morning (one of my favs! yes, I know you're not supposed to have favs but I love this family) and told him that I'm away, thanked him for reaching out to both Lindsay and I in a group chat to see a house while I'm away and explained I'm on a trip with my Mom, the time difference and where I am and he replied "Vietmom!" lol, which is so on brand for him and totally fitting.

Just had a quick call with Jay, he called to ask how to cook the lasagna I left in the freezer for him.  He's taking advantage of the time that I'm away and golfing A LOT.

There is a nespresso machine in our room - the options are shot or double shot.  But there are also full coffee mugs so I choose double shot, then double shot again, then double shot again - it was really good coffee just not much of it!  You can tell it's not that full because you can still see the top curve of the spoon.

Mom came out of the bathroom saying she's got to buy one of the magnifying mirrors with the light.  If you're a woman over 40 you know why.  We pluck in solidarity.

We headed out for a walk to see if we could find somewhere to  have breakfast, right across from the hotel is a park with this pretty fountain in the middle.

Mom all of the sudden said she wasn't feeling well (likely lack of sleep and the weird food schedule yesterday) so we sat down for a few mins in the shade (we had literally walked about 300ft so it wasn't heat yet).  While we were sitting there I looked up to see if there was a hop on hop off bus here - I know that it's the penultimate tourist thing to do but it's a great way to a) learn about a city and b) see a whole lot of it in about 75 mins.  And there is!  Then we saw it drive by so knew that the route would pass by somewhere near the hotel and there was no rush.  

We walked back towards the hotel and stopped at a nice cafe and asked for the menu.  When I saw the menu I realized that this was the back side of our hotel!  We each ordered a croissant and we shared a fruit tray. We could have shared the croissant it was so big (but we didn't, we each had one) and I ordered the Hanoi Breeze to drink which had watermelon, lime and ginger juices in it.

It's fairly cheap to eat here - especially considering the cafe was associated with the hotel, the croissant as big as my head was only $4.56 Canadian (90,000 dong).  One of the Uniworld cruise companion guides said that USD would be widely accepted in Vietnam and Cambodia but then I googled it the other day and they said they don't accept USD at all in Vietnam other than at hotels where you can exchange.  I asked the server if we could pay in USD (just in case) and she said no, so I put it on the room and I'll just pay cash for the tab before we leave.  But also before we went back out on our walk to where the bus terminal is we stopped at the front to ask if there was any info about where we meet the tour tomorrow and they had an envelope for us and exchanged $70USD for 1,790,400 dong.  We also went back to the room and I grabbed my handy dandy water bottle, put on some sunblock and Mom grabbed her portable fan and her sunglasses.

We took a meandering tour around looking for the City Sightseeing bus stop - the streets here are all pretty chaotic but something I read yesterday (maybe from the hotel) in tips for getting around the City said if you're crossing the street just walk at a steady pace (like commit and keep walking, lol, be predictable and remember they don't want to hit you is what I'm feeling). When we found the bus stop I wasn't sure which stop number we were at and was looking to see when the next bus should be arriving (usually the schedule is online or there is an active map that will show you where the bus is on an app).  The busses don't seem to go very often maybe every 45 mins and as I was saying that one drove up!  I said to Mom "well that was very fortuitous".  We went up to the top deck (if you're going to be a tourist go all in).

Then we looked around and realized that everyone had shade hats (and they can't have all brought them for fashion, so they must be provided on the bus).

So we decided to REALLY go all in.

I'm not sure it was better for me, I get overheated wearing hats - and we both brought visors for these very type of tours but neither of us remembered to bring them.  Mom's fan was a good idea, I didn't think I would need it but did.

Now for the tour information!

Hanoi has a 1,000 year history, it's located 90KM from the sea and is rich in silt.  It has a sub-tropical climate with 4 distinct seasons associated with seasonal flowers.  We are currently in Autumn which is associated with the lotus flower.  Hanoi is an economic hub of Vietnam with a 9.5% growth rate and is the 17th largest city in the world.

Stops on the tour included the Citadel.

Swan rides in the lake in the middle of the City.

The most famous ancient church in Vietnam (I'm not going to lie, I can't remember which one this is).  There are 4 holy temples in Hanoi one in each North, South, East and West.

Mosaic Street has a guinness world record, it spans approx 4 miles in distinct sections and was developed for Hanoi's 1000th birthday.

There are 54 cultural groups in Hanoi.  I wrote that down with no context but clearly thought it was interesting.

Additional things that we passed. 

The oldest pagoda in Hanoi

The mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh

The Temple of Literature - which was the first modern University in Vietnam in the late 1700's

And then just some other pictures I took with  no info:

Mom and I commented a couple of times about how green it is here, even in the dense city every street has mature trees and a lot of green.

We finished the tour at a different stop than we started on but still close to the hotel (one stop early) so we had to cross a big round about. We watched and assessed and went backwards to one of the arms, crossed calmly like we weren't playing frogger and when we went to cross the 2nd arm it was somehow even busier.  Another woman was waiting to cross with her probably 5 year old and we started across the same time.  Mom said "always follow the woman with a child"..I said "you are a woman with a child it's just a matter of perspective".

We got back to the hotel, changed and now are sitting by the pool resting. Someone brought me when I sat down this glass of water, fruit skewer and cool towel which was lovely.

Now I'm all caught up on writing the blog so I'll read for a bit.  It's 2pm almost here (2:47am at home) and I'm not hungry for lunch yet.  I might go in the pool in a second but I'm not super hot, just comfortable.

About 3:00pm we decided to grab lunch but rather than be served at the pool we went into the restaurant (for some AC mostly).  They serve the same menu as pool side.  We shared a burrata salad and shrimp fresh rolls and pork crispy spring rolls and both were delicious.  We commented we'll have to remember that we can always share meals here because the portions are huge.  Lunch came to 1,000,000 dong ($55 CAD) and Mom also had a diet coke (which they brought in a little 500ml serving vessel they usually bring wine in and poured it for her and left her the other half which is genius) and I had a blueberry mocktail that had lemon and mint.

      (I forgot to take a picture before I started eating the bread - this is my half)

We came back up to the room so that I could drop my laptop off.  While I was carting my laptop to the pool earlier I thought (again, like I do every time I'm on vacation) that I need a packable pool bag.  So, I looked up to see if there was a Longchamp close by and lo and behold there is one 6 min walk.  So to get there you walk past Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Valentino - not that Longchamp isn't a splurge because, for me, it is, but the number of designer shops in this area is a little obscene.  So I got my Longchamp and now I'll always remember that I got it in Vietnam (and I was too cheap to buy it in Italy, lol).  I really like the colour too, it's a dark grey with a hint of green, which is hard to see in the photo.

Tomorrow morning at 9am we leave the hotel for 2 nights in Halong Bay, I think this is the part of the trip I'm most excited about as far as scenery goes.  It looks so stunning from photos online.  We keep trying to figure out how many nights we are in each place so finally I put the one page day by day itinerary from my document holder into my bag so that whenever we're wondering "how many days are we here?" then I can pull it out.  We were 2 nights at this hotel, now we are going 2 nights on the ship in Halong Bay and then we are back to this hotel for 2 nights which is when the regular 15 day tour itinerary starts for everyone who didn't book the pre-cruise extension.  After that we fly to Cambodia, we'll deal with that later, we don't need to know that far ahead yet.

It's 4:55pm and we're back in the room (I think for the night) we strategically had a late lunch and then walk.  Mom napped a bit at the pool but I don't think that we're going to go back out for dinner so this is likely it for the night.  I'll just go ahead and post (after a final review to make sure that it makes sense to you - because sometimes it makes sense to me but you likely need more context) and if anything interesting happens I'll add it to tomorrow!

Travel Day - Toronto to Hong Kong to Hanoi (Vietnam)

 Mom and I decided a couple of days ago to stay at the airport because I was able to use my Bonvoy points to get a night at the Sheraton Gateway right at the Terminal.  Jay drove us to the airport and opted not to stay to go out for dinner so we just had him drop us right to the door and we'll eat here.  

We came in the doors, I don't think we looked like we were struggling, but the doorman said inside and to the right to the elevators.  I looked ahead and there was an escalator - I said "we can take the escalator to get there?" he kinda looked at me and shrugged and said "yes, up and to the right for check in".  We made it up just fine.

The check in line was unusually long and didn't seem to move very fast.  A rep from the hotel came over shortly after we lined up letting us know that they were using a new check in system for the first time that day and there would be a longer wait than normal and asked if we'd like a bottle of water.

We got all checked in, came up to the room (murder central) and went right back down to grab something to eat.  Someone in the line was asking about restaurants close by and the staff member said she didn't want to seem biased but the smash cheeseburger was really good in the restaurant here.  Mom and I shared and I had a Corona Cero - the smash cheeseburger was excellent.

After dinner we came back up to the room and got ready for bed, it was about 8pm so we both read our books. Mom and I had a miscommunication over the adapter.

I thought that she was asking if in addition to the black adapter did she also need her white apple cube and I was saying no.  She was asking if she needed the black adapter and I said no so she didn't bring it.  It's fine, that adapter has a plug and also 4 USB slots so we can just make due with one but also I wouldn't be surprised if the hotels and ships also had USB style plugs (thus the USBC to USB charger adapters because some of our cords are USBC on both ends now).  So we'll be fine, charged up and fully accessible - - only not really because we're 12 hours ahead/behind (not sure yet which one) and so we're fully accessible with a super long delay unless you reach us between 7-9am or pm your time then we should be mostly accessible. lol

I had a good sleep, the Sheraton beds are always so comfortable. I woke up about 5:30am but decided to get up anyway since we have a long flight today to Hong Kong (15.5 hrs) and then a 3 hour layover there before a 3 hr flight to Hanoi.  When we arrive in Hanoi it will be 6pm there (6am here) so I'm going to try to just nap so that I'm tired to go to sleep when we get there.  Fingers crossed.

I got this handy dandy travel wallet at Threads Boutique in town and Averie asked if I would take pictures with it (kinda a joke) like Flat Stanley travelling the world so you'll see this little gal popping up throughout the blog.

I bought SO much stuff that I didn't know I needed to go on this trip - a raincoat (needed), a mini umbrella (needed), a mini water bottle (meh, maybe not but super cute and handy - needed), a multi-charging cord that does my phone and my watch at the same time, a power bank (because you never know), new shoes (one for travel, one sandals and one waterproof walking shoes), a lulu sweater and comfy light Lulu travel pants and lastly (I think) a Lulu sling bag to hold my abundance of stuff when I'm out walking (like the water bottle, power bank and umbrella - very practical).  Oh, and this awesome passport cover that holds both mine and Mom's passports because I am the carrier of the important documents since the Passport Incident of 2026.

We left the room and walked over to the terminal around 8am. There was no one in the Nexus line, the gate agent asked where we were going, repeated "long flight" twice and said Cathay Pacific has the best service and we should ask for wine and beer, lol.  There was also not a single person in the Nexus security line so we put our bags in the bins, sent them through, picked them up and were off.  Mom's ginormous bag of liquids wasn't a problem while I stuffed my liquids into as small a bag as I could like a woman wearing too small spanks just closing it up with a little prayer hoping it doesn't burst at the seams.

It's a long walk to the Plaza Premium Lounge but it turns out it's right by our gate which is super handy when it comes time to board.  I had said to Mom in the hotel that we should go to the Cathay Pacific desk if there isn't a line up so that we could do our passport verification.  Because we fly carry-on and check in online we always have to do this at the gate.  We didn't end up going to the check in because it wasn't immediately identifyable and the Nexus entrance was so we have to go and do that before we board.

When we got settled near the gate I left Mom and the luggage to wait while I went up to the check in desk to do our passport verification.  Because we fly carry-on we always have to see the gate staff, even though we have our boarding passes, because no one has checked our ID yet.  So I approached the desk, asked about passport verification and handed them our two passports.  They said they had announced our names and I told them we were in the lounge but know I need to have it done so came to the gate right away.  One of the reps said "I've never seen a passenger so prepared".  Then they asked about our Vietnam Visa which is with Mom in our bags so I went back and got the other document holder and sent Mom up with the Visas and passports (because they wanted to see her) - she said there was a bit of confusion because we both have Patricia in our name but then she got it and confirmed the Visa information I had to provide in order to get our boarding passes.

Our Carry-on bags  - well mine, Mom's is the same same but different colour.

We boarded within about 15 mins of being at the gate, got to our seats, threw everything in the overheads and settled in for a long flight…

...

That was a LONG flight.  But they had a good non-alcoholic beer and a cheeseburger on the menu!

We made up some time in the air so they announced it was going to be 14h and 13m (instead of almost 15.5hr).  We arrive in Hong Kong at approximately 1am our time (1pm their time) - I had two very short very restless naps on the plane.  We have approx a 4hr layover now that we arrived early and then another approx 2h15m hour flight.  We arrive in Hanoi at approximately 6:10pm, get our transfer to the hotel and hopefully go to sleep and get onto “time”.  Tomorrow we have a free day because we’re arriving a day ahead of the group - about 8 weeks ago I said to Mom “If we can get a refund and it doesn’t cost too much more how would you feel if I changed our flights so that we aren’t flying through the middle east?”  We were flying Qatar Airways.  I checked and could get a refund.  Actually Wendy Wood from Cruise Holidays checked and we could get a full refund so she did that for us and then I booked us independent of the tour we’re on with Uniworld Cruises on Cathay Pacific through Hong Kong and it was significantly cheaper per person.  But, it meant that because of the timing of the flights we arrived a day early.  And instead we went this way!

For those who made it this far maybe I should explain!  This is a 50th birthday trip with my Mom, courtesy of my Mom.  We decided together where we would go and then I did some research on the river cruises that are in this area - Uniworld had a really nice Vietnam and Cambodia for 15 days between land and sea and then an optional 4 day pre-tour extension in Halong Bay which I definitely wanted to do.  Then I reached out to Wendy, who I worked with at Cruise Holidays back in probably 1997/1998, who goes to Curves with me and she did an amazing job booking it, our extra excursions, arranging our flights, answering questions, etc.

This is the cruise we're doing if you're interested in the itinerary but backwards because I wanted to do the Halong extension as the first thing we did.

https://www.uniworld.com/ap/river-cruise/asia/mekong/timeless-wonders-of-vietnam-cambodia-and-the-mekong/2026-ho-chi-minh-city-to-hanoi

We arrived in Hong Kong and after going through the transfer security made our way to the Cathay Pacific lounge to sit some more...we'll probably do a walk before we get on the next flight but I'm tired!  I'm not a night owl so staying up like this kills me but I like to try to get on the local time as soon as possible. At security my bag got pulled aside because I had nail clippers and tweezers inside but they said they were fine after looking at them.

The flight to Hanoi was super quick - it was supposed to be 2h15m but it was 1h34m just enough time to have a meal and watch 2 shows.

Once we arrived in Hanoi we had to go through the worlds longest immigration line but it moved pretty quick.  The 4 people behind us said enough stuff about being in education that I figured out that they're professors at Melbourne University so I asked my Mom if that's where my cousin, Jason, is a professor.  Then I asked them if they knew him, they didn't.  They were super nice though.  I think Jason's a professor of Chemistry.  

I booked a private car to pick us up from the airport from a site recommended by TripAdvisor.  The hotel private transfer was $250USD (yikes) so I looked around and got this one for $18USD - yes you read both those right.  The driver was right where he said he would be, he didn't speak english but drove well enough.  Traffic is a little chaotic here - several times Mom gasped and said "I can't look" and twice his car said "Start recording emergency video" except for the one time that he almost took out 3 vespas and a minivan the car didn't register that as emergency worthly.

Lots of scooters - the most people I saw on one was a family of 4 and the most stuff was 4 x 2' square boxes (two high like a passenger and then one on either side of the scooter).  The population of Hanoi is 5-8.7M depending on where you draw the boundaries so without the scooters I can't imagine how congested it would be.

Our tour starts tomorrow with the group arriving but we booked the same hotel to stay tonight - the Sofitel Metropolitan Legend and I requested when I booked that we could stay in the same room for tomorrow night when it's part of the group booking as well and they were able to accommodate that.  I didn't add the breakfast at the hotel to our booking becasue it was $65 pp for breakfast. We're in a REALLY nice part of the City - there is a Berlutti and I think Prada across the street, so I'm sure there will be a coffee shop where we can get something for a light breakfast in the morning somewhere down the street.

We look not bad for having travelled 24 hrs (by the time you factor in we were at the airport 2 hrs early and then we had an hour in immigration and an hour almost drive to the hotel) and only had airplane naps.

Welcome Lemon Tea

Handy Map they gave us of the sites.