The World Through My LENS & The Stories Through My PEN: April 2014

Walking Alone Through The Rain Along With My Camera in HANOI. Such A Lovely City With Simple Lifestyles and Various Cultures. It is Indeed A Very Short Trip, Only 1 Day and One Night, I However Tried To Take As Much Photos As I Could. Too bad, It Was Raining All Day. Wish I Could Go Back To Make Up This Trip Soonest.....

The Flight Was 0645hrs And Of Course, Too Early For Me. I Woke Up With My Panda Eyes Since The Night Before I Have Finished Worked At 2230hrs.

The Plan Was Suddenly Made And I Didn't Know Why I Wanted To Go To This Place. Actually It Was Just My 2 Dayoff And I Just WANTED To Go Away Somewhere.

The Plan Was Quiet Empty. I Could Imagine Why. Because The Rain In HAOI, So There Is No Reason For People To Go There. I Just Was Thinking Different.

I Arrived At The Airport NOI-BAI Around 0740hrs. I Was Kinda Lost. I Was Thinking That There Might Be Internet At The Airport So I Would Try To Arrange My Tour Program After Landed. Everything Was Upside Down. No Internet Oh! My Lod BUDDHA. Still Lucky, I Have iPhone5S. Hahahah! I Tried To Open The Data Roaming Just To Use The Internet. Unfortunately, It Kept Showing "NO SERVICE"

Now I Have No Choice. I Was Yet Having Hotel So I Came To The Tourist Service Just To ASK For The Map And Find Where To Start. The Lady Was Nice And Asking Me Where To Go. I Replied " Nowhere Yet, Will Find Out Later When I See The Map" The Nice Lady Turned To Be Someone Else And Say " Sorry Miss, Now We Don't Have The Map" I Thought I Was True In What She Said So I Walked To Another Boots. I Got The Same Answer "NO MORE MAP"

I Have Decided To Go Back To The First Boots And Asked Them To Book A Hotel For Me. The Lady Turned To Be Nice Once Again And The Map Was Suddenly Presented To Me. ( Remember That She Said No More Map lol) This Was Kinda Funny. I Found Out Later That It Was The Boot For Selling The Hotel. They Keep The Map For The Person Who Buy The Hotel Only "NOTHING FOR FREE" Now I Have perfect Understand Of This.

My Hotel is RISING DRAGON Hotel. It Was In Old Quater. I Took A Meter Taxi And Experienced Something Funny. The First Taxi Driver Stopped At The TAXI Station Near The Airport, The The New Driver Has Come To Drive Me To The Hotel. The Weird Part Was Not Only That I Had New Driver But There Was Also Another Guy Sitting Next To The Driver. (2 Guys) I Had A Strange Feelings About This So I Asked The First Driver Why There Were 2 Drivers In My Taxi. The Answer I Had Was "The Other One Is The New Driver, So He Needs To See And Explore The Way" Hmmm! Strange But It Was OK, I Guess. The RAIN Started To Fall Lightly And During The Way To Hotel Was So QUIET.

During The Way, The Driver Has Phoned To Someone And Talked In Vietnamese. 2 Of Them Couldn't Speak English At All. After He Finished The Call, He Stopped The Car And This Made Me So Scared. I Asked Him Why He Stopped The Car In Such A Quiet Place Like This? Of Course, He Didn't Understand My Question. I Was So Scared Since There Were 2 Men In The Car. The Road Was Quite Empty And The Driver Just Stopped The Taxi For No Reason. (Of Course, He Must Have The Reason But He Couldn't Explain In English To Me)

I Jumped Of The Car and My Bag Was Falling Down. Outside, It Was Raining. And I Stood Outside, How Sad. The Driver Tried To Ask Me To Get Into The Car But I Said I Would Wait Outside. They Dont' Speak English So The Used The Body Language (Hands) Begging Me To Get In. I Finally Got Into The Car And They Kept Driving. I Just Knew Later On That The Driver Stopped The Car Because His Friend Will Turn In The Receipt For Him (They Talked On The Phone) But He Stopped Wrong Place. It Was Not They Tried To Do Something Bad To Me Like I Thought, Not At All. I Was Thinking Too Much (Who Wasn't When 2 Men In The Car And Stopped Middle In Nowhere)

I Finally Arrived Safe And Sound At The Hotel. The Taxi Fare Was VND400,000. (Reasonable Price) The Check In Was Smooth And The Reception Has Escorted Me To The Room 904. It Was Perfect Room And Quiet. I Took A Nap For A While Since I Was So Tired But It Was Not A Nap. I Woke Up Again At 1600hrs. I Almost Miss A Day.

I Have Taken My Camera And Came To Reception Counter For Some Information. I Got The Map So I Would Walk Around And Take Some photos. People There Were Nice And Kind. When I Walked By Them, They Gave Me Smile. The Only Thing That Made Me CRAZY Was When I Tried To Cross The Street. VIETNAM iS Such A City That Has Lots Of Motorbike. There is No ZEBRA-CROSSING Flyover Bridge. To Cross The Street Was A Real Nightmare Since The Bike Would Never STOP For You.

I Have Taken Many Photos While WALKING But Then The Rain Was Falling. Made Me Sad. I Tried To WALK Back To The Hotel. During The Way BACK, I Have Met Some People And They Told Me That It Rains Everyday In Hanoi. Hmmm! What Should I Do Then. If It Rains Everyday, Then You Couldn't Do ANYTHING Except Stay In The Room.

I Arrived The Hotel and Got A Little Bit Wet. I Went To My Room And Check The Internet For The Weather Forecast. It Was True, It Would Be RAINING Everyday Here In Hanoi. Going BACK To Bangkok Was My Only Option.

Another Nightmare Has Begun. I Tried To Book The Flight Back To BKK And It Needed To Send SMS To My Mobile For The "ONE TIME PASSWORD" My Phone's Roaming Couldn't Work Here So How Do I Get SMS. This Really Made Me Mad.

Thank God For Having The Internet. I Have TALKED To My Friend In Thailand Via LINE Which Was So Crystal Clear. P'Tump Has Booked The Ticket Back For Me And I Would Be Leaving HANOI Tomorrow. That Means I Only Had 1 Day and 1 Night In Hanoi. What A Real Wasting Time And Money.

I Have An Early Morning Flight At 0900hrs So I Have Left The Hotel At 0600hrs. I Asked The Hotel To Arranged The Taxi For Me Which Was Fixed Price At $17. It Was OK. At Least The driver Would Never Stop Somewhere Since He Has The REAL Destination To Go lol. Even It Was A Short (Really) Trip, I Enjoyed My Stay So Much. The Staffs Were Wonderful AND Tried To Help Me In Everything They Could. This Hotel Has The Certificate Of Excellence From TRIPADVISOR. They Deserve It, Really.

After Arrived At The Airport, I Went To The Passport & Immigration Control Right Away Since I Already Have Checked In Online. It Was A Long Que Really And When It Was My Turn, I Once Again Experienced Something Unpleasant. The Immigration Office Ask Me For Boarding Pass And After I Presented, He Told Me "GO AWAY" I Was A Bit Confused And Asked Him Why. Unluckily, He Couldn't Speak English (How Come) He Showed Me The Boarding Pass And Acted Like Getting It Stamped. Now I Understood. I Went BACK To Check In Counter Just To Get The Boarding Pass Stamped So The Immigration Could Let Me Get In. Normally, When We Already Do Online Check-in And No Luggage To Load, We Just Go Straight To The Immigration Control But NOT In "VIETNAM"