Traveling to Vietnam

Assalamualaikum wr wb!

Hows everyone?!

I will share my experiences traveling to one of countries in ASEAN, and it is VIETNAM! A few days ago i just traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam.

I did not consider this trip as backpacker because i spent quite much.... hehehe. I stayed in Hanoi from Monday-Friday. This started because i saw a flight promo by air asia, so i decided to book the ticket as soon as possible! I will share how much money i spent but excluded the oleh-oleh i bought:D

ngoc son temple 

breakfast at hostel

hostel

ha long bay

the cave in ha long bay

ha long bay

opera house

st. joseph cathedral

food at halal food restaurant (near al-noor mosque)

ninh binh trip

ninh binh trip

ninh binh trip

ninh binh trip

Day 1

I started my journey on Monday, april 3rd. We took morning flight at 06.35 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA terminal 2). It took 3 hours from KL to Hanoi. Anyway, the timezone in Hanoi is same with Indonesia (GMT+7). As we arrived in Noibai international airport in Hanoi, we decided to buy the sim card because our friend suggests us to buy one cause you will need GPS very much in Hanoi. We met 2 indonesians during the flight, and they also stayed in the same area with us so we decided to take grab from airport to our hostel.

We stayed in Golden Snake Hostel. It is located in old quarter, near to everywhere. I would recommend this hostel! The staffs are very friendly! The breakfast is delicious, we also get hot tea. The bathroom is clean, and bedroom is clean. Some people will play piano and sing at night, but i like it! 

Basically, on the 1st day we went to hoan kiem lake, ngoc son temple, west lake (and took coffee with view of west lake, so nice), al-noor mosque (the only one mosque in hanoi).

On the 2nd day we went to ha long bay. Fyi, we cannot go there without travel agent. Idk why, it is just the way it is. So we must go to travel agent (you can choose one among LOTS of agents, seriously). Thankfully , we have a friend there and he helped us to get a cheap price! Be careful, some travel agents offer with high price, but i guess it is normal since we are tourists, but still you need to survey first like go to agent by agent.

The bus from travel agent will pick you up at hotel usually from 8 am. It took 4 hours from hanoi to the harbour. Ah anyway, i chose the 1 day trip cause i guess its enough for me. But you can choose 2 days 1 night, or 3 days 2 nights, etc, and ofc the price is different. For 1 day trip, you will get mineral water, lunch, enjoy bamboo boat, and go to cave.

On the 3rd day, we went around old quarter. We visited hoa lo prison,st. Joseph cathedral, literature temple, flag tower, and opera house.

On the 4th day, we went to ninh binh! We used travel agent again due to short time that we had in vietnam, we were so in rush! So we got the cheap price again because of our friend yeay! In ninh binh trip, you will get mineral water, lunch, go to temple, bicycle-ing, and go on boat along the river.

THOUGHTS of Hanoi :

1st thing is, so chaos. People who ride the motorcycle are just insane! You need to be careful especially when you want to cross the street. People walk on the right, different with Indonesia, and the steer of car is on the left. It is hard to find people who can speak english heheheh. But everything is cheap there! Maybe because of the currency. It is so hard to find halal menu, so for moslems, be ready for that. But although it is chaos, idk why i feel safe and the local people are kind eventhough they keep staring at us because we wear hijab, even one of them thought this is traditional cloth:’) and a few people guessed we are from saudi arabia :’) yaudah gapapa. Fyi, vietnam has 4 seasons. It was almost summer but the weather is so nice! Not so hot! I love ittttt. Overall, i really really love my trip in Vietnam and also i think there are so many good-looking people hihi.

TIPS for going to Hanoi :

-          Buy sim card, cause the public transportation is not easy (for me), so you can use online transportation like grab, uber. And for gps!

-          Choose hostel in old quarter to make it easy going everywhere

-          For muslims, bring breads or snacks to mengganjal kelaparan sementara when it is hard to find halal food

-          If you want to go to ha long bay, survey the prices first, lots of travel agents in old quarter, and make sure the price is worth the facilities. One of the tourists already paid 40USD and she did not get full trip in ha long bay.

Money i spent for traveling to Vietnam : 

Flight ticket (KL-hanoi and hanoi-KL) 381.12 MYR, in rupiah approximately Rp 1.147.000

Golden snake hostel (5 days 4 nights private room, include breakfast, wifi) 122.38 MYR , in rupiah approximately Rp 369.000

Day 1:

-          Grab from airport to hostel , each person 72.500 VND

-          1 sim card VND200000 , divided by 2, so 100000VND

-          Eating kfc , VND55000

-          Ngoc son temple ticket VND30000

-          Drinking green tea in highlands coffee, VND65000

-          Bus 2 times, VND 14000

-          Eating halal food restaurant, VND 72500

Day 2 :

-          Ha long bay VND 630000

-          Mineral water VND 10000

Day 3 :

-          Grab to literature temple VND11000

-          Literature temple ticket VND30000

-          Flag tower ticket VND40000

-          Grab to opera house VND14000

-          Grab to somewhere VND11000

-          Eat kfc VND58000

Day 4 :

-          Ninh binh trip VND 550000

-          Eat in halal food VND70000

Day 5 :

-          Grab to airport from hostel VND120000 (because only two of us)

Total = VND 1.953.000, Rp1.150.000

Final total include hostel and flight so Rp2.666.000

That’s it. Hope it helps to anyone who wants to go to Vietnam. If you want to see the video, check it on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzePYfFufXE

See you on another post, cheers!