First day in Hanoi! (6 months complete on the blog!)

The alarm went off at 4.10am this morning - not fun! I was in the taxi to the airport at 4.30am. I had checked in online so I went to the bag drop and before I knew it I was boarding the plane to Hanoi. An uneventful three and a half hour flight and I arrived in Vietnam with a driver waiting to pick me up.

I arrived at the hotel at about 10.30am and my friend Dee met me not long afterwards. The Church Hotel where I was staying was a cute little hotel in a great area. After meeting Dee and chatting about her tour in Cambodia and other parts of Vietnam over breakfast, we walked up to one of the main shopping areas in Hanoi - about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.

We wandered around for a while looking at bits and bobs. We were so hot and sweaty that by the time we came across the first bar, we were ready for a beer - it was 11.15am! We headed back towards Dee's hotel for lunch and enjoyed Pho noodles (pronounced 'fur') for lunch with a Hanoi beer. After lunch we walked to Dee's hotel and she introduced me to a few of her tour companions and we spent a couple of hours relaxing in her room before heading back down to my hotel.

We recovered from the heat there for an hour or so before heading down the street a couple of doors to La Salsa for a sangria and some tapas on their balcony overlooking the catherdral. As we sat there, a huge rainstorm rolled in and we watched the world outside try and escape from the torrential rain.

After finishing our drinks, it was still raining so we jumped in a cab into the Old Quarter for dinner. We went to a great restaurant called Green Tangerine which was in an old (1926) villa. We sat in the open air but covered part of the restaurant and enjoyed a great meal of Asian fusion seafood, salmon for me and seafood paella for Dee. As you can see from the photo, Dee (and I) also enjoyed dessert! After dinner, we wandered around the streets for a while looking through some of the shops before heading back to our respective hotels. We were exhausted after both having a long day of travel.

I said goodbye to Dee as she was heading off to Halong Bay for a day and half and we will meet up again on Thursday.

I got up to my room, fell into bed and slept like a log! Great first day in Hanoi!