Vietnam at a Glance! Our Hanoi Itinerary and Travel Tips | Vietnam Travel Story
This story will be a bit long so better prepare your popcorn for you while you are reading! haha kidding! I just don’t know where to start. It has been one year since I visited Vietnam – in the 1st week of December 2016! It’s time to recall it!
My sister and I spent a short time at Vietnam (5 days only!) and we went to 3 different provinces – Hanoi, Da Lat and HCMC.
That’s why my story title is just a “GLANCE”. I hope we could stay a bit longer as Vietnam offers a lot of beautiful things – from their culture and food, to of course their tourist attractions!
I am also living in South East Asia so I don’t have any high expectations on this country except that they have a better weather compared to my country – Philippines.
Contents
Day 1
We arrived at Noi Bai International Airport early in the morning (around 1 am local time) so it would be hard to find a public transportation going to the city center. Their airport is a far from the city center, so it is recommended to book your car in advance. We booked a car that is offered from our hostel. We booked in a hostel just to sleep for the remaining hrs before the sunrise.
As we like to travel in the budget, so we initially prepared an itinerary several months before our trip.
How did we get our Vietnamese Dong?
ATM withdrawal using a card that has MasterCard and Visa sticker. We usually withdraw at Maritime Bank (luckily the max. withdrawal is 3,000,000 dong – other banks offer just 2,000,000)
The more money you get, the better (as you will pay for the local bank charge for international withdrawal)
Where did we go?
I will just list all of the places we’ve visited in Hanoi below, starting from the first until the last destination:
1. Imperial Citadel of Thang Long in Hanoi
This is where Hanoi Flag and other historical pagoda is located. We took a taxi going there but we were a bit cheated by the driver that he charged us 80,000 dong (about USD 3.5) – double price on the normal fare going to that place!
Entrance fee: 30,000 dong/each
I bet there are a lot of photoshoots happening in everywhere!
2. Ba Đình Square
At the center of Ba Đình Square, you could be able to see 3 different tourist spots.
You are able to see:
– Presidential Palace Vietnam ( Văn phòng Chủ tịch nước Phủ chủ tịch )
– Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
– a City Hall? haha not sure what it is called but it looks elegant
We took our lunch at the cafe shop before entering Ho Chi Minh Museum called “My Nghe”. The food is good and the ambiance is really refreshing.
3. Ho Chi Minh Museum
We just walked for about 5 mins from Ba Dinh Square going to Ho Chi Minh Museum located on the back of Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.
We didn’t enter the entire museum as there are a lot of people queuing, so we spent time walking around the vicinity.
There are pagodas near the museum entrance.
4. One Pillar Pagoda
A small pagoda with a lot of foreigners taking a photo of it. It looks a bit old, also there are locals praying on this place.
Our next destination is a bit far and my sister and I were a bit tired of walking so we decided to take a cab going to the next stop. At the map, it did not look too far but based on our research it would take about 15 mins to walk. We didn’t take the cab at the entrance as we thought that they would charge us a lot compared when we take a cab on a bit farther place.
You can read more information about the places mentioned above here
THIS IS WHERE WE GOT SCAMMED! 🙁
The taxi driver looked decent, though we didn’t notice that the taxi drivers should be wearing a uniform. We asked him if we could use the meter then he said yes! Surprisingly he agreed with us that fast, then he told us to be quick and ride his taxi right away. So we didn’t think of anything about him because most of the Vietnamese we’ve met were very helpful. After a minute, we got shocked that the meter reached 100,000 dongs. My sister and I started to feel that there was something wrong happening! We reached the destination after 5 mins and guessed what the meter of the taxi reached into 600,000+ dong (which is too much when even compared to the taxi rates in our country) My sister ask for a receipt, but what he just told us was: “QUICK! QUICK!” then my sister handed him a pen to write the price on the receipt but he refused to, unfortunately, we handed him 500,000 dongs as we told him that we didn’t have money then when he got the money, he drove away very very fast! -_- Bad thing we haven’t taken a photo of that taxi. Screw him! It was our first day but bad thing already happened to us. If that didn’t happen to us, there would be nothing bad I could say in Vietnam.
Where did we go next?
5. Trấn Quốc Pagoda
Just a quick visit as we were still frustrated with the taxi driver.
We did not want to take a cab anymore (just learned the lesson) so we just walked to the next pagoda. Thanks to the locals as we asked them how to get there. Along our way there, we asked two locals and good thing one of them can speak English. They were based in Saigon, same with us they didn’t know the places so they searched it thru google then gave us the directions.
6. Quán Thánh Temple
A small temple that you could just pass by, we didn’t go inside but there is an entrance fee of 20,0000 dong.
Then after that, we did not have any choice but to take a cab going to Hanoi Opera House as it was far from this temple. BUT we still considered the fact that the taxi drivers would cheat us. We were walking around the streets again then the two locals we’ve asked earlier were near us and APPROACHED us again if we needed their help. Good thing they are super nice and helpful that they offered us to book a GRAB car to be able to reach the next destination. That’s the smartest and biggest help he had done to us!!!! Thanks God, there are still nice people on earth 😀 His name is Nguyen Minh Duong! Thanks Duong! He lives in Saigon but their work just allocated them in Hanoi for a week.
We only paid: 40,000 dongs for the taxi.
7. Hanoi Opera House and The National Museum of Vietnamese History
It’s been a tiring and challenging day for us; it’s really nice to take a photo here at sunset. There are a lot of photo shoots everywhere as usual.
The last problem was how were we going to get back to our hotel? So we became EXTRA FRIENDLY again then asked the staff of Hanoi Opera to book a GRAB car for us. (haha I just realized that we became a user-friendly there! haha)
When we arrived at our hotel, we decided to walk around to find and bought a local sim card so that we could have an internet data and book our own Uber/Grabcar.
A host from Couchsurfing recommend us to eat the local Bun Cha at Hanoi, so we stopped by and ate a Bun Cha.
Bun Cha:
Cost 200,000 dong for 2 people and I tell you it was sooo much for 2 people, probably could fit 4 people to eat the meal!
Sim card:
Cost around 100,000-150,000 dong (varies if you would like a 7-day data up to 1-month data with local texts and calls). You don’t need anything (id, etc.); you just need to pay for it.
DAY 2
Woke up early in the morning to start very early.
1. Temple of Literature
Looks plain on the outside but there are a lot of more when you go inside, the temple is very spacious and pictureque.
Entrance fee: 30,000 dong
This is the time we meet a local from Couchsurfing. She told us to meet her at Trang Tien Plaza. So we took a GRAB car going to that place. That mall surprised us a lot as the design looks like you’re in Europe. It’s a small mall but it’s very fancy and elegant.
2. Hoan Kiem Lake
-Catching up and having a good talk with her while we walk around Hoan Kiem. She introduced us the history of that place and she shared a lot of things with us about Vietnam.
3. Ngoc Son Temple
The famous red bridge at the center of Hanoi Old Quarter.
Entrance fee: 30,000 dong
After the side trip on Ngoc Son temple, we met her friend and continued hanging out.
4. St. Joseph’s Cathedral
Walked from Ngoc Son Temple going to that old Church in Hanoi.
And the last thing we’ve done in Hanoi was to eat at local street food. The food is called “Che” if I’m not mistaken. We enjoy eating that hot food sitting in a small chair on the street side Ngo Huyen.
You can read more information about the places mentioned above here
After that, we went to the airport to Da Lat!
All in all, Hanoi left a good impression on me. Nice sightseeings, good foods and friendly people! (Except the taxi drivers!)
Looks like you had a whirlwind visit, and all very positive with the exception of the taxi driver scam!!
Really liked your blog. It’s too bad you had the taxi experience, but thanks for sharing. Really valuable tip!
Thanks for your post. It’s so helpful. So many destinations within 2 days.
I’m surprised that you two only need 2 days to visit all of those interesting places in Hanoi. I’ve never been to Hanoi before so this post is really essential for me. Thanks for sharing.
Sounds like an amazing 2-day trip. I’m glad that you have fun! Whatsoever, you have to be careful all the time, cuz there are many scams in the society, not only in our country. By the way, thanks for sharing this post!
Hanoi is one of the best destination in Vietnam. If you travel to Hanoi, you must to eat street food and enjoy special cutural in Hanoi. That’s amazing
What a taxi adventure for sure. I really dislike it when they take advantage of people. I would definitely be a tourist and take a ton of photos of all of the pagodas and temples. Sounds like you travel like us and fit a lot into a couple of days.
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Even though it was a quick trip, it sounds like you saw a lot! Sorry you got scammed with the taxi, but if that’s the worst that happened, that’s not too bad! I want to take a trip like this with my sister one day.
5 days and three provinces is quite the busy trip! Sorry that you got scammed, that definitely isn’t the best way to start a trip!
Lots of cool stuff to see in Vietnam! I can’t stand people who scam others.
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Seems like you had an amazing time except for the taxi scam, sorry that happened to you.
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