HANOI, VIETNAM

It's been more than 2 months since I've written any post which I am sorry about. I had simply nothing to write about since I mostly focus on the traveling posts now. My last blog post was from the beginning of December when I was in Cape Town, I mostly had no new destinations since then. 

Anyway, I celebrated Christmas in Dubai with my mum and friends which made me so happy and also celebrated New Year's Eve on board flying from Johannesburg back to Dubai. On New Year's Eve, it was my 1 year flying anniversary. In January, I managed to get couple of days off and went home where I haven't been for more than one day since August. Time flies. I spent very nice time with my family and friends and before I knew it, it was time to go back to Dubai. 

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Today's post is about my trip to Hanoi, Vietnam though. I requested this flight and I was so happy when I saw it on my roster. Hanoi is not that far from Dubai and the layover is 34h which is a decent time to see the city and do some stuff. 

Once we arrived to the hotel in the afternoon (it was an overnight flight), we quickly changed and went to the city to see local markets. It was 6 of us and we took a local taxi and ended up being stuck in the traffic for quite some time. 

It was very windy and cold in Hanoi which none of us expected, so our first stop was to buy some more layers of clothing, socks, shoes etc. I thought I checked the weather properly and packed accordingly, but still had to buy a new jumper and had to wear high socks with my TOMS shoes which looked ridiculous. We walked around the market and once it got dark outside, we sat in a local restaurant which was recommended by Trip Advisor. The food was really tasty and cheap. We got back to the hotel around midnight and me and one other girl had to wake up the next morning very early because we booked a day trip. 

Some of the crew been to Hanoi before so they didn't want to go on a boat trip and mostly wanted to relax the next day, so it was only 2 of us. We had to drive 2h to get to the place where we got on the little boats and sailed around the river for another 2hours. The original plan was to see Ha Long Bay which was unfortunately too far for us. The place we went to was so beautiful, it was only us on the boat, the tour guide and another guy from France who was traveling around Vietnam. 

The only disadvantage was the wind which was so strong and even though we bought ourselves some jackets the day before, we were freezing. Our fingers turned blue at some point too. It was supposed to be around 15 degrees, but it was close to 5. After the boat trip, we had lunch arranged at a local restaurant and the next plan was to go cycling, which me and the other girl refused to do because of the wind. Instead we went to see the local temples which was much more enjoyable for us. Our tour guide was very well spoken and he knew a lot about the history. 

By the time we finished the whole tour and got back to the hotel, it was already late afternoon and we had to wake up in the evening for the flight back to Dubai. I don't think I've ever been this tired on a layover before, I usually manage to see the place and to get some sleep too, but this time it didn't happen and I arrived to Dubai the next morning with only 6h of sleep in the last 3 nights. Yes, I was very tired and exhausted but had about 2 days off to recover before my next trip. 

So that was Hanoi, Vietnam. I am very happy I was able to see this place and I am sure I won't mind if I see this destination on my roster again in the future. There are so many places to see and things to do, hopefully it will be warmer next time. 

If you don't follow me on my Instagram yet, here is the link. I upload pictures as often as I can but mostly do the insta stories from all around the world. 

See you next time.