A lesson in double-checking our travel visas!

Jon and I almost didn’t make it to Vietnam.  Our flight from Southern Thailand had been slightly delayed. When we arrived in Bangkok for our connection to Hanoi, we found ourselves in a sea of people trying to check-in for their flights. It would take at least an hour and a half to get through the lineup and our flight would start boarding in 30 minutes.  I managed to weave my way through the crowd and found someone who could get us to the front of the line. It was then that we found out that Jon’s entry visa to Vietnam was invalid because of a typo in his passport’s expiry date.

The agents at check-in told us they could not let him on the plane with an incorrect visa. Jon was unimpressed with my suggestion that I go ahead and meet him in a few days when he had it sorted.  There was nothing wrong with my visa after all and having us both stay behind and miss flights would be costly. The Air Asia check-in agent recommended we use our phones to purchase an emergency visa for a hefty price on the spot. Regular visas take about 3 days to approve, but you can pay extra for a 1 hour approval time.

Right before we hit the final OK on the form an Air Asia employee ran up to us asking if we had bought the new visa yet. She had managed to text with someone at the Vietnam airport explaining the situation. The Vietnamese side had just texted back and agreed to let us through.  I never thought the best airline customer service experience of my life would be with Air Asia, but there you go.

Our struggles were not over. Our flight was boarding and we still had to complete check-in, fight our way to the front of the customs line, then make it through security. People were pretty understanding about skipping the lines, but of course, our gate was the furthest one in the airport. After a long embarrassing run through the airport, we made it onto the plane and Jon passed through customs without issue on the Vietnamese side.

We exchanged some money and bought our sim cards before exiting the airport.  The public transit system to Hanoi’s Old Quarter from the airport was great and dropped us about a 5-minute walk from our hostel.  They upgraded us to a huge family room. The downside was it was on the fifth floor which was exhausting to get to and throughout the stay I had a bad habit of remembering something I had forgotten in the room just as I got to the bottom.  Starving, we ventured outside and managed to nab the only 2 tiny chairs on the curb and feasted on our first bowl of Pho. Weekend or weeknight, the streets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter are always packed.

Getting in on the Hanoi Peace Summit Fever

This was my second trip to Vietnam (the first being in 2013) but the first visit for Jon.  I had raved for months that my favourite memory of the city was indulging at the Chocolate Buffet at the Sofitel Metropole.  In the morning I emailed to inquire about their hours but was informed that the Metropole was closed to the public because it was hosting the peace meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.  I was extremely unimpressed. Later in the day police started to line the sidewalks with rope and the crowds started to form.

We were told that Trump would be driving down the street so we decided to wait around. Just to be clear, we are not Trump supporters, but there was a small possibility that this could be a monumental day in world history. Being able to say we were there was too intriguing to walk away from.  Also, I never imagined I would stand in a crowd of Vietnamese people waving American flags with huge smiles on their faces. We asked someone if they liked Trump and they said that they wanted to do their part in creating an atmosphere of peace to encourage the success of the talks. Hanoi certainly nailed it with huge signs everywhere saying PEACE.

Peaceland t-shirts with the two leaders were everywhere. Barbour shops advertised Kim hairstyles. My personal favourite was the restaurant with the Durty Donald Burger with Russian Sauce and the Kim Jong Yum Pulled Pork Burger with Kim Chi. 

Trump did breeze by us and within minutes everything was back to normal in the busy streets around the lake. This was my second trip where a sitting president would drive past me. The first time was when Steph and I accidentally ended up at the inauguration of President Mauricio Macri in Argentina.

One day of political madness was enough for us so we began our tour to Halong Bay the following day.  Hanoi is the wild wild west of tour agencies. If an agency gets a good review or gets written up in Lonely Planet, other agencies will change their name to match it. After going to several agencies with the exact same name and looking through several boat trip lookbooks, I settled on the Golden Bay Cruise. Boat tours vary by level of accommodation and activities. This boat was not advertised as a party boat but it did provide a 20-litre keg of beer for the passengers to share and the price was right.  

The boat ended up being a good choice. Our group of 12 or so people was great with a wide variety of ages.  You can’t bring your own drinks on, they actually confiscated someone’s vodka, but I did love that whenever it was not a mealtime they flipped the Happy Hour sign over and pushed their specials. 

Being on the boat was the better part of the tour. The two stops where we disembarked to explore the Cave and Ti Top Island were insanely crowded with people. While Halong Bay is a Unesco Heritage site, we both preferred the lack of crowds and lack of garbage offered in our Khao Sok tour a week prior.

At night we had a lively discussion around a great buffet and worked our way through the keg. Jon tried his hand at fishing with some of the guys but came closer to catching garbage than anything else.  In the morning we went kayaking and the tour ended with a spring roll making class.  

We returned to Hanoi and the next day and met up with Tom Kennedy, who also lives in our tiny town in Newfoundland, but was spending the winter in Vietnam to escape the quiet and harsh winter.  It was nice to touch base with someone from home after a few months on the road. We did not even stay the night in Hanoi since our next destination was Sapa. We were booked on an overnight bus so we could arrive in time for our multi-day trek through the rice terraces.

Where to Stay:

We stayed at the Ibiz City Hostel which was in a great location and easily accessed by bus from the airport. We paid 916604 Dong for a two-night stay.

Best Booking Agency

After booking our boat trip I discovered Lilys Travel Agency through someone’s blog. We booked a number of things through them and the customer service was excellent. Even when we were in Sapa we were able to get them to help us with train tickets for later in the trip via email. Also, the locals they work with for Sapa trekking tours are fantastic.