Favorite Thing: Favorite things about Hanoi are very few and far between. Having arrived at 1am because of a flight delay from Singapore, I was surprised to see that most of the city is basically closed. Not just closed... windows and doors barred, gated and locked down. Including our hotel in the Old Quarter!
We had to knock on gates to wake up the hotel staff to try and get a room in other hotels. Men would roll out of makeshift beds in the small lobbies, hastily put on a shirt, and open the door a crack to inform us that no, there is no room at their hotel.
We dragged our luggage behind us, going from hotel to hotel looking for a room. At 3am, we gave up and tried a 5 star hotel. Although the hotel was fully booked as well, it was open and thus, a welcome sight. The good people at Melia did give us the hook up with the Horison hotel and at 3am, we finally got to lay our heads on soft pillows.
The next night, we decided to experience some of the nightlife Hanoi had to offer but lo and behold, there's nothing to do past 12am. We went to Bobby Chin's to see what the Hanoi elite would look like. Expats. What a disappointment. We decided to hit the Relax Bar too. There were 5 bar girls there, a handful of male expats, and a very drunk and disgusting French old fogey being lewd and overtly sexual towards the bar girls. One beer and we were out of there.
Fondest Memory: Taking photos of the people around Hoan Kiem lake was probably the highlight of my entire trip. Buying a painting of Buddha for USD20 was also a good experience.
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Hanoi
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on Feb 21, 2006
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