Rose very early – flew [from] Chiang Mai to Bangkok then on to Hanoi – arrived 1215. Fought through bureaucracy – got taken to hotel– Changed/freshened up…
Quite a fight it was too, on arrival at Hanoi. I cannot remember all the details of it, but it was to do with filling in a form upon which you declare the address where you are going to stay.
Given that we were to be staying at several places in the space of a week and I had the local tour agent, Vidotour’s, address, I presented the form with that. Not good enough. If we were staying at several addresses I needed to list several addresses.
So I tried to write several addresses on a tiny form. The official claimed he couldn’t read my handwriting. “Do you know who I am?”, I felt like saying, but didn’t. He was quite cross and suggested that I had deliberately written illegibly.
So he called a more senior official, who suggested that the name and address of our local tour agent, Vidotour, would do. Good idea, Sir.
I should add at this point that we had a marvellous time in Vietnam; that hoo-ha on arrival was the only inhospitable moment during our stay.
…went round Old Quarter and down to Hoan Kiem Lake – returned to hotel [I am pretty sure we stayed at the Dan Chu, formerly known as the Hanoi Hotel and latterly known as Hotel de l’Opera Hanoi] – then evening out at Indochine Restaurant – quite pleasant – early night
All the pictures from the North Vietnam segment of our trip can be seen on this Flickr album – click here or below.
