Short Escape to Hanoi Day 1: Old Quarters

It is the September holiday! The wanderdust in me started scouting for places to go. Unfortunately due to work, I only have 4 days to spare including the weekend; anywhere beyond SEA is out of the question.

The eyes fell on Hanoi; we had explored Hanoi a couple of times but never been to it and I had wanted to visit the Halong Bay. The flight fares were reasonable and the next moment, we got ourselves booked. Yay!

Our flight was at 9.55am and we found ourselves in the taxi soon after we got out of bed.

My phone camera is good lah. I think 美图秀秀 is embedded. Hohoho.

Immigration was a breeze and we had just enough time for bfast before heading to the gates.

We are obedient Singaporeans. The staff said to wait until our rows were called and that was what we did only to realise that the whole flight didn't wait and we were the last few to board. Lol. We were flying Scoot and the woes of late boarding for budget airline is the lack of baggage space. Fortunately, we only had backpacks with us and could easily slip beneath the seats.

Like all budget airlines, we booked Daddy Lim on the emergency exit role with extra leg space and the 3 of us behind him. I bought meals for him and the kids and in prep of the no frill flight, the kids downloaded enough movies on Netflix to entertain them. Everybody was kept very happy. I even managed to snooze until the kids on my left and right decided to interact with each other. Zzzz. Lil Shauna even woke me up to help her open the gummy bear packaging. Win already.

We survived the 3.5 hour flight alright. The flight was largely smooth until when we were about to start ascending. Lil Shauna and I happened to look out of the window and I was telling her what big clouds out there. The next moment we were bumping along into the clouds. I didn't enjoy that but the kids thought that it was super funny and exciting. Wait until they are older to read about plane crashes. Lol.

Hello Hanoi!

We landed alright despite the naughty clouds.

The immigration was fairly crowded but we joined the right Q and was cleared quickly. The 1st thing was to collect the sim card (only S$9) that we purchased via Klook. Luckily I had printscreen the picture of the counter; the Klook sign was tiny and easily missed.

The staff helped to set up the sim card.

Then it was the private transfer that we also booked via Klook to the hotel. That cost us S$19 and a 45-mins trip. 

Our hotel was right smack in the Old Quarters. 

We got a triple room and it was decent in size for a one-night stay. We had a single bed and a double bed. The double bed seemed so small to fit 3 people. It suddenly dawned on me that soon, our family will need more than 1 room for future trips. 

Soon after we settled down, we headed out to explore the Old Quarters. Seriously, other than Halong Bay, I didn't search too hard on what to do bcos I didnt have time. I do know that there is some famous lake nearby. 

The Old Quarters is made up of many, many small streets, selling all sorts of stuff. There were plenty of colors. We went by many shops selling toys and our kids are way past that stage. Nobody bugged to buy any toys anymore. 

The weather was HOT! I read that the climate in Hanoi at the end part of the year is nice and cool, like 20ish degrees. Where is my cool weather? I melted and the sunglasses that I bought for the company costume party comes in useful. 

It wasn't long before we decided to stop for a break. It was freaky hot. We found this decent looking tiny Cafe and ordered some finger food. The cafe came with an upper deck and it sure looked quite illegal. Daddy Lim can't even stand straight. Haha. 

But we must be in luck bcos the aircon was working on the upper deck!

And we found the owner's cute little kitty.

It wasn't look before we started walking and exploring again. I must have walked very hard that my slippers gave way. We couldn't find any nearby shops selling slippers and I was wondering if I had to go barefooted until an idea stuck me. 

Tadah! Yes, that is a rubber band for the hair. I am glad that I always brought extra. 

The ingenious idea not bad hor; it lasted me all the way to the lake and even back to the hotel. 

We finally made it back to the lake and must at least take a few pics. It actually looked more man-made than anything. Maybe we didn't explore enough. 

We didn't stay long before we decided to go for a cold smoothies before making our way back to the hotel. 

Along the way, everybody was helping to look out for shops to replace my slippers but found none. Seriously, there were all kind of shops but slippers. What the??!!

We made it back to the hotel and left the kids in the room to search a little more. The efforts paid off and I finally found my slippers. Hohoho. Along the way, we also found a dinner place with Western food, massage place, an interesting shop with birds.

And bought a BBQ-I-have-no-idea-what. Lol.

We lazed and rest in the room before setting out again for dinner. Nobody wanted to entertain me for any more street walking. Like Ho Chi Minh, the passenger walkpaths are for motorcycle parking and passengers are supposed to walk on the road instead.

The dinner place that we found earlier was perfect. They had Western food; the kids had problems with Vietnamese food particularly Zaky. Even the earlier finger food tasted funny to him. 

The last stop of the day was massage! We opted for foot massage and walked in to some random massage place that we saw. It was VND200k for 1 hour, which worked out to be about S$12.

When we 1st entered the shop, only a staff was manning the counter. We were told to wait for about 10 mins. We were right to guess that the masseuses had to be called in from somewhere. In the next 10 mins, 4 of them appeared with their bikes and gave us out massage. 

The massage was good. It must be really comfy bcos Lil Shauna was trying to stay awake and Zaky just gave up trying. 

Luckily he was willing to walk back to the hotel after the massage. 

The rest of the night was spent watching TV from the bed. Lil Shauna knocked out soon after. Only Zaky had the strength to stay up for TV having done an earlier cat nap.

Mummy Lim