Hanoi Day 1 Almost missing our flight and terrible nail salons (3 nights in Taipei - March '17)
As mentioned in my last post, we used up the last of our cash paying for our beef noodle soup. Also important to note is that taxis in Taipei do not accept cash. So what happens when you realize you are 1 hour from flight departure and haven't even hopped on any form of transportation to the airport? Extreme panic!
To start - our flight was at 8:30am so we woke up at 5:30 and were checked out by 6am. We rode the metro 1 stop to Taipei Main station in hopes of catching the new train direct to the airport. For whatever reason we don't make it to Taipei Main station until 6:30am. We realized the timing of the new trains wouldn't make sense for us to catch it in time (I believe they leave every 15 min) and attempted to catch a taxi in the long taxi line at Taipei Main Station. This failed as every taxi in line did not accept credit card. Frantically we looked for an ATM in the station, which rejected all of our cards. Finally we went to the bus station and decided at 7am there was not much left to do except take the one form of transportation in Taipei that actually DID accept credit card.
Luckily, a bus was departing in about 10 min and we were off by 7:15am. This was our faithful kuo kuang bus 1819 that, as luck would have it, made no stops from the metro station to the airport. This meant we were able to reach the airport by 8am, in which I ran to the counter China Airlines to check in my luggage by 8:10am! Luckily our flight was slightly delayed and there was no trouble checking in, getting through customs, and boarding our full flight which departed around 8:45am! It's been a while since the one time in my life I missed a flight (an international one) and this produced just as much anxiety.
The flight to Hanoi was uneventful. I believe they served a full meal during our 2 hour flight which is always nice compared to the cheap US airlines that serve you pretzels if you're lucky.
Once landed, we went to the visa on arrival counter where they process probably 1 passport every 30 minutes. The visa on arrival option is something you can do in Vietnam instead of applying for a visa in advance - it is cheaper and can be more convenient if you don't have time to go back and forth to the Vietnam embassy. I believe getting a visa at the embassy can be ~$80 plus service fees and the visa on arrival is $25 plus service fees (you need to get a letter of approval reflecting your full name from an agency in advance - there are many online that are reputable). I read on multiple sites that the visa on arrival time wouldn't be too long at Hanoi since it is a smaller airport compared to Ho Chi Minh however the wait was about 1 hour - they seemed to process groups at a time, prioritizing local passports and then grouping US passports at a time. Overall it was frustrating.
Finally we got out, and I retrieved my checked luggage. Since Uber is a reputable source of transportation in Hanoi and Vietnam, I called an Uber all while being hassled by local drivers. I read online about drivers in Vietnam that take advantage of tourists by either taking them to a remote location and demanding a large sum of money or just being shady in general so we stuck with Uber during the whole trip.
The ride to the city took about 45 min where most hotels are located. Hanoi is a smallish city bustling with motos and some cars and lots of pedestrians with little to no sidewalk space. We stayed at a very nice hotel called HANOI ORIENTAL CENTRAL HOTEL.
----------------------------------
Update on March 29, 2019 - this was the last draft of my trip as it's been 2 years since I started this blog and failed to finish 1 trip. I've decided to get back into it and document my recent travels to Hong Kong (via layover), Bali, and Singapore.
To start - our flight was at 8:30am so we woke up at 5:30 and were checked out by 6am. We rode the metro 1 stop to Taipei Main station in hopes of catching the new train direct to the airport. For whatever reason we don't make it to Taipei Main station until 6:30am. We realized the timing of the new trains wouldn't make sense for us to catch it in time (I believe they leave every 15 min) and attempted to catch a taxi in the long taxi line at Taipei Main Station. This failed as every taxi in line did not accept credit card. Frantically we looked for an ATM in the station, which rejected all of our cards. Finally we went to the bus station and decided at 7am there was not much left to do except take the one form of transportation in Taipei that actually DID accept credit card.
Luckily, a bus was departing in about 10 min and we were off by 7:15am. This was our faithful kuo kuang bus 1819 that, as luck would have it, made no stops from the metro station to the airport. This meant we were able to reach the airport by 8am, in which I ran to the counter China Airlines to check in my luggage by 8:10am! Luckily our flight was slightly delayed and there was no trouble checking in, getting through customs, and boarding our full flight which departed around 8:45am! It's been a while since the one time in my life I missed a flight (an international one) and this produced just as much anxiety.
The flight to Hanoi was uneventful. I believe they served a full meal during our 2 hour flight which is always nice compared to the cheap US airlines that serve you pretzels if you're lucky.
Once landed, we went to the visa on arrival counter where they process probably 1 passport every 30 minutes. The visa on arrival option is something you can do in Vietnam instead of applying for a visa in advance - it is cheaper and can be more convenient if you don't have time to go back and forth to the Vietnam embassy. I believe getting a visa at the embassy can be ~$80 plus service fees and the visa on arrival is $25 plus service fees (you need to get a letter of approval reflecting your full name from an agency in advance - there are many online that are reputable). I read on multiple sites that the visa on arrival time wouldn't be too long at Hanoi since it is a smaller airport compared to Ho Chi Minh however the wait was about 1 hour - they seemed to process groups at a time, prioritizing local passports and then grouping US passports at a time. Overall it was frustrating.
Finally we got out, and I retrieved my checked luggage. Since Uber is a reputable source of transportation in Hanoi and Vietnam, I called an Uber all while being hassled by local drivers. I read online about drivers in Vietnam that take advantage of tourists by either taking them to a remote location and demanding a large sum of money or just being shady in general so we stuck with Uber during the whole trip.
The ride to the city took about 45 min where most hotels are located. Hanoi is a smallish city bustling with motos and some cars and lots of pedestrians with little to no sidewalk space. We stayed at a very nice hotel called HANOI ORIENTAL CENTRAL HOTEL.
----------------------------------
Update on March 29, 2019 - this was the last draft of my trip as it's been 2 years since I started this blog and failed to finish 1 trip. I've decided to get back into it and document my recent travels to Hong Kong (via layover), Bali, and Singapore.
Comments
Post a Comment