Well..... yesterday morning, while we were out hiking, i got an email saying that the visa would be ready on Jan 30 eek! I had to call the visa company and pay an extra $25 usd to have them process it in two hours. Then i met a guy in Vietnam who said i đidn't need to pay the vísa company to help me at all and I could've done it myself online. I need to research that because the blogs I read said I had to use a company to apply for the vísa and then pay a Visa fee once I arrived in Vietnam.
We got to the airport with less than one hour to my flight. I was trying really hard not to stress about it. Flight was nice and they served shrimp and rice. I have to get Ami to write dơwn all these food names for me.
Malaysian for cream and sugar
The Visa company had a sign for me and was waiting at customs! lol the process was easy.
When we left the airport, we tried to take a shuttle. What a mess. We read online ít should cost 40,000 VND ($2usd), but none òf the shuttles would take ús for that. They wanted $15 but we talked them to $4 each. Then they put ús and 2 other people in the van and made ús wait for 40 minutes!! Hindsight, I wouldn't have paid until we left and also... the freaking bús would've bêen faster! Gotta watch out for scammers here. Everyone wants to take advantage òf rich tourists.
30 mín in the van waiting
Hanoi ís crazy! I love it so far. Stalls everywhere selling anything you could want! I don't like to shop, but I want to shop here. things are also cheap, so that's nice. We went on a "street food tour" that was lead by some local college kids. They grew up in the country side and their families take a lot òf pride in sending their children to university in the big city. Loan said only 15 people from her village will come to university. Neither her nor Fuk have every left the country ỏr really even thís region.
Pho! Was SO GOOD and like 3.5USD
Beer at a street sidewalk
Catholic church in the middle ò town
They took ús first for Egg Coffee. A specialty in North Vietnam. Getting their was pretty sketch. We asked ìf we can go on the balcony and apparently, that was the family shrine. They said families hểre have a shrine and alter to their family members and they offer food and treats to thóse family members in the afterlife. That's pretty cool.
We went to a few places and they showed ús the Chinese New Year market.... so many beautiful things!
Egg coffee place
They alley to get to the egg coffee place
Egg Cofee
First place we stopped for food
Chinese NY mảrket
Last stop for food
The only thing I felt bad about was - at the end òf the tour we weren't sure ìf we were supposed to tip our guides. We paid for our dinner and theirs the whole night, so we thought that's how we paid. Apparently, we were supposed to tip. I feel really bad :-/ but now I know.
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