hanoi, vietnam – day 2

I used to have motion sickness but I’m glad I grew out of it. I slept soundly on the ship.

Early morning photo.

Breakfast was good, and served with unlimited Vietnamese coffee.

Off we go to Sung Sot Cave.

This cave is huge. Fishermen – and later soldiers – used to hide in here during the Vietnam War.

Fantastic view from the top:

Brunch on the ship, and then back to port after that. We were dropped off at the Garnet at 4:30, where we finally met the elusive Nancy.

We headed out for dinner. We saw a KFC on our way to the hotel, but unfortunately they only accept Vietnamese Dong. Back we went to the Garnet. We couldn’t find a money changer still open at that time (around 6pm), so we had our dollars changed at the hotel (19,000 dong for 1 USD; true rate is 20,000 dong to 1). Nancy was acting very impatient with us, like we’re wasting her time. We didn’t like her.

We asked earlier if we could be served breakfast early the next morning, and she said breakfast could only be served at 8:30 AM as the cook comes in only at 8 AM. No apologies, no effort to help us. I know this is a budget hotel, but customer service shouldn’t have a price. Hay nako.

Here we are, sampling authentic Vietnamese cuisine (and promptly ignoring each other thanks to the Wi-Fi).

We walked around the area to look for places where we could shop the next day. We also bought food for breakfast. Hanoi weather is very muggy, even more humid than the Philippines, I think. Wear something comfortable.