We arranged a van with lots of other tourists to take us to the Viet Anh Hotel where we already had reservations. Van cost $4 each passenger, it sounded reasonable. The ride was shocking. Coming from sleepy and quiet Laos, we were overwhelmed by the sea of scooters honking (beeping really) at the same time all the time, and crossing intersections like daredevils to and from all 4 directions at once. The 45-minute van ride felt like an odyssey. Since it was dark and streets seemed to change names every 3 blocks, we didn't know exactly where we were. Suddenly the van would stop and passengers would get off in a hurry. At one point it announced the name of our hotel and the driver got the bags off quickly, charged us an amount in dong that ended up being 50% more than we had agreed, but it was all too fast for us to figure it out. In the meantime, a guy was taking our luggage into an office, claiming to be from the hotel, but that unfortunately didn't have a room for us, but no problem, the hotel around the corner is the same price come with me.
Simon called time out, it was a scam! Arghh. Helped by not 1, but 2 maps, we found our way to the real hotel. It was walking distance, we just had to try to avoid being run over by a scooter.
Once we arrived at the hotel, they didn't have our reservation so instead of the "city view room" we thought we had reserved, we got the "no window room". If we add the fact that later at dinner the restaurant tried to over charge us, we concluded that Hanoi was not welcoming us.
Things got better on Tuesday. We moved to a room with balcony in the hotel, we visited several of the beautiful city highlights, including Uncle's Ho mausoleum, and had lunch by a lake. We were brave enough to venture through the city by bike. The most memorable biking experience of my life. Traffic in Hanoi is just crazy, more than Bangkok by far. After this trip, I think Simon will be ready to change his name to Lance Armstrong. :-)
Mercedes
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