Hanoi – Feb 21

After our night on the train and in the cubbyhole (refer to previous blog), we decided to take it easy and walk around the city. First, we stopped by ET Pumpkin Adventure Travel to book a tour the next day to the Perfume Pagoda. This cost $18 USD each. I tried to ask the agent if it was going to be busy but she didn’t understand. We found out the hard way the next day.


Some nice old architecture in Hanoi.

This was actually the first day we saw sun in the north of Vietnam. Temperature was in the low 20’s and it was beautiful. We went to the west side and saw Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. Neither of us was interested in seeing his embalmed body so we just took a couple of pictures from outside. Very close to the mausoleum was the Canadian embassy, which was not impressive looking at all. We also went to the botanical gardens, which is supposedly make-out central for young lovers, even in the early afternoon.

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum.

Hanoi - February 14

Our afternoon in Hanoi was spent scrambling to book tours to Halong Bay and Sapa. After visiting many tour agencies, we decided on one agency over Indian dinner. We figured that would be our Valentine dinner. (This Indian dinner turned out to be NOT a good idea, considering our 4 hour drive the next day…)

The agency we picked was Handspan – suggested by Lonely Planet. The Halong Bay tour was 3 days/2 nights, including one night on board a junk boat. Unfortunately, the Sapa tours were cancelled due to cold weather. Supposedly some of their clients got there and wanted to return immediately. We therefore only bought train tickets and will find a hotel ourselves. We figured we could handle the 2-3C during the day and -1C at night. Hopefully, we won’t regret our decision…!