I love the way flowers are sold in Hanoi. It warms me in those cold days when seeing these flower bikes.
DELAYYY & BAD WEATHER
My flight to Hanoi should have started at about 4pm as the time I booked the tickets online. However, before my flight schedule, Jetstar texted me that my flight would be delayed till near 7pm. I started to feel scared a little bit because I travelled alone there before the conference in AIESEC I joined happened. But I still thought in a positive way and texted my female friend (an AIESEC alumnus) to announce my arrival time so she could pick me up. 😦
Before I got on the plane, another flight to Hai Phong – a coastal province near Hanoi was cancelled due to the bad weather. Those passengers already went to the place to get on the plane but they had to come back to check-in place. I heard many complaints. I started to think about my flight. 😮
AN “UGLY” HANOIAN GIRL
I didn’t know why the hell I easily got bored with the time on the plane and I didn’t bring any book along with me also. Therefore, I started a conversation with the girl sitting next to me.
She was kind of weird. And the most weird thing is that when I ask her if it was dangerous for me to stand on that street alone to wait for my friend to pick me up when I moved from the airport to that place by a bus ticket I bought on the plane. She said that I was ugly so I didn’t have to worry about rape. I heard some bad things about some bad Hanoian girls but WTF?? I tried to keep calm myself. And I started to know that those 2 hours on the plane was one of the most miserable moments in my life since that…
She also asked me how much money I brought because she knew a travel girl reading some travel inspiration and travelled to Thailand. She ended up calling her mom to send money for her because she underestimated the cost to travel there. WTF again? I just wanted to shout at her but I still stayed calm.
However I still didn’t understand why she was nice to me sometimes. For examples, she asked me why my friend couldn’t pick me up at that street, waited for me to walk with me to the bus or told me I need to be careful. Weird as always!
The way snacks are sold is also impressive and traditional.
PROSTITUTE STREET IN HANOI
When I got off the plane, I was so excited because this was the winter of Hanoi. As a Saigonese, I had never experienced a cold weather like that. However, I quickly got on the bus to move to the center of Hanoi. According to my friend, I would stopped at Hoang Quoc Viet – the street in the middle of the way to the centre. And I knew thanks to someone that that street is the prostitute street of Hanoi. And my friend said that she could not go there to pick me up.
When I got off the bus, many male taxi drivers yelled “Hey darling” to invite me to choose their services. At 10:30PM, a 20 something lady tried to pull her heavy language to the place in front of the bar to come near to the security guard to be safe.
The Huc Bridge – one of the famous tourist places in Hanoi
“I’M A FOREIGER”
My friend called a taxi for me because as far as I know, there are some scam taxi in Hanoi. I got on the taxi and gave my phone to the taxi drivers to talk with my friend coz my friend told me that I shouldn’t talk any thing. The taxi driver told with other taxi drivers that he would drove to the hotel. I started to feel scared but I thought that was just the way he remembered the place.
He turned back and asked me in Vietnamese “Are you a foreigner?” because I kept quite as my friend told me. According to my research before travelling, some taxi drivers set a high price if they know you are not Hanoian. And haha I couldn’t stand but tried to not laughing. If I anwered “Yes. I am foreigner.”, maybe I faced another situation.
When I arrived, my friend came out to pick me up. She greeted me in Vietnamese. That man gave me a stare. Haha. Sorry, I didn’t want to be a liar but as girl travelling to a new place at 11PM, I have no choice!
“YOU GONNA BE ALONE!”
When I came to her the room she rented to work in Hanoi, I gave her my gift to show my gratitude to her for hosting me 3 days before the AIESEC conference I would joined. She let me rest a little bit and said to me that she would go on a business trip. I would stay alone for 2 nights and looked after the room. Ok, I tried to be fine although I just arrived here for a few minutes.
When she left, I checked all the doors and windows before going to sleep very carefully. There are 4 ways that people can enter the room. I put many obstacles according to what I saw on the film to create traps if someone entered and could unlock the door.
Although many things happened to me, there are still so many interesting things and good people in Hanoi I was lucky to meet during my trip to Hanoi. I think the important thing of travelling alone as a girl is to keep a positive attitude to deal with every situations. I was so happy because this time I decided to travel alone for 10 days for the first time. I cannot wait to my next trip! 🙂
Trang Le
Jessie – a friend from the previous wave of the internship took us around the hotel and provide interesting information about the hotel for us. There are 3 themes of rooms. They are S Type (white room), L Room (Non Home in Memory) and M Type (Non home in Memory) . And every single room is special and unique. The rooms are designed by famous architects who worked for Jia Jia to create a special atmosphere its customers.
BOOKALUST 