Monday, 3 March 2025 – Saturday, 8 March 2025
It’s Monday, March 3rd, 2025—day 1 of our new adventure. We’ve been back at home for the last three months, patiently waiting for the arrival of spring when we would continue with the second part of our cycling trip. But because the weather was still cold, and we wanted to continue traveling, we decided on a 6-week adventure of backpacking over Vietnam. This is our story.
Let’s start one day before the trip, on Sunday, 2nd of March. As it often happens, we still had plenty of things to do at the last moment, which meant that we went to bed late that night—at 23:45 to be precise. This left us with 45 minutes of sleep before we had to get up and drive a car 3 hours to the International Airport in Vienna.
But wait, maybe we should jump a few more days into the past? It was Thursday, February 27th, when we got our Vietnam visa approved (yes, of course we applied at the last moment). We bought plane tickets that evening, which left us with exactly three days to finalize our plan and pack everything. Our plane tickets included only 5 kg of carry-on luggage, which, combined with a tiny foldable backpack as a personal item, made it clear that we wouldn’t take much with us. Forget big backpacks and fancy clothes for every occasion; it would be two t-shirts and a single pair of pants for us. We were in this for experiences, not to look pretty in the pictures. Besides, traveling with a lot of stuff wasn’t our style anyway.
We didn’t get a direct flight to Vietnam; it would take 3 flights and 26 hours of traveling to get to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. We would start in Vienna (Austria) and fly around 90 minutes to Milano (Italy). From there, we had an 11-hour and 20-minute flight to Shanghai (China), and finally, a 3 and a half hour flight to Hanoi (Vietnam).
So, that’s it—we had a rough plan, we packed a light backpack, we made a hostel reservation for the first night, and we were tired as hell when we sat on that 8 AM airplane from Vienna International Airport. It didn’t take long before both of us fell asleep, waking up with sore necks when the airplane started to descend. We had a 2-hour layover in Milano before we boarded a much bigger plane for Shanghai. Unless you’re one of the lucky few, you probably agree that sleeping on the airplane is uncomfortable—out of the 11 hours, we maybe got 1-2 hours of sleep.
We had no idea when day 2 started. We passed over 7 time zones on the way to China, and it must have been sometime during that long-haul flight. The airport in Shanghai was huge—when we arrived, we had to take a train to a different terminal. Even though we had a transfer flight, we still had to go through security once again—this meant no liquids in your bag, so it was the second time in the last 24 hours that we had to chug down our water on the spot. It was 5:30 AM local time in Shanghai airport, and we had over 8 hours of layover, so we got on one of those uncomfortable chairs in the airport—you know, the ones with armrests in between just so that you can’t lay down. After two hours of unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep there, we walked around the airport and found a kids playground that had several soft pillows on the floor. We weren’t the only ones who saw the opportunity to lie down. We slept in shifts, each one getting a bit over an hour, before we had to get up and go find our boarding gate. Ours was D230, but we saw letter G going up to 652—it was hard to grasp the size of that airport. The area of gate D230 had more sleep-friendly chairs without the armrests, so we could lie down and sleep in shifts one more time.
We couldn’t wait to get to our hostel in Hanoi and get some proper sleep. We felt like all those short chunks of uncomfortable sleep just made us more tired, and waking up left us dizzy for a short time.
To be honest, we don’t remember much of our third flight. We didn’t sit together because the plane had different seat arrangements, and they changed our tickets before boarding, but both of us mostly slept throughout the whole flight. When we arrived, we had to go through an immigration check, which, without considering some funny looks from the officer when she compared Primož and his passport photo, went smoothly. This was a piece of cake compared to the US immigration office (but we didn’t have bikes and unusual travel plans this time). We went through the third and final security check, and we were out in Hanoi City, the capital of Vietnam!
It was around 18:20, and the first thing we did was exchange 100€ to Vietnamese dongs (1€ is approximately 26.000 VND)—with 2.6 million dongs, we were officially millionaires. What is the first thing one buys with so much money? A bus ticket, of course. Noi Bai International Airport is located 26 kilometers out of Hanoi center, and our plan was to take the bus to get into the center. There is an orange bus, Express 86, which is easy to find, and it takes you directly to the center of Hanoi. The ride took 1h20m with only 4 stops along the way, and it’s hard to miss the right stop to get off—just follow anyone with a big backpack; they almost certainly go into one of the hostels in the center. The bus ticket cost 45.000 VND (less than 2€) per person.
We had booked one night in Mad Monkey Hostel, which is not an ideal place to get some sleep since it’s considered more of a party hostel, but we were so tired that we couldn’t care less about the loud music. It was our first time staying in a hostel, but we didn’t experience it much because we took a shower and went directly to bed. We missed the unlimited-drinks evening, but at least we got a free breakfast in the morning.
The two alarms that we had on day 3 were in vain—we slept through the first one, and the second one wouldn’t go off until afternoon because someone set it up in the wrong timezone. Luckily, we woke up about an hour before the check-out time; otherwise, we would have had to stay there one more night.
We spent the day exploring the old town center of the capital and visiting museums. We went for a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake, then to Hoa Lo Prison Museum (Vietnamese politician leaders were locked up here in the 1940s), Temple of Literature (the first university in 1070), and Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (inside is the body of Ho Chi Minh—the first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam).
Traffic in the center was crazy; mopeds and motorbikes are by far the most popular means of transportation, and it seems like almost everyone owns one. But, in the end, it doesn’t matter what you’re driving—if you’re a part of the traffic, it’s expected of you to let everyone around you know about your presence by aggressively honking. As a pedestrian, you could expect to walk on the sidewalk, but most of the time the sidewalk is already taken, so you just have to join everyone else on the road. The ones taking up all the sidewalk are mostly street vendors with their merchandise or street-food sellers with tiny stools and tables. Crossing the road also comes with its own challenges—there are hardly any traffic lights, and pedestrian crossings serve no purpose. One option is to wait it out until there is a hole in the traffic and you can rush over the road, but a far more popular and handy option is to simply build up courage and walk over the road. We have no idea how this works, but as long as you don’t change your pace, everyone expects where you will be in the next moment, and they just swirl around you. It’s extremely terrifying when you try it for the first time, and it doesn’t get much better with practice, but sometimes you just have to do it, and you can feel the adrenaline boost as you expect to get hit at every moment.
We had booked the Capsule Station Hostel for the next three nights, where we got a double bed for 12€ per night, which was one of the cheapest options we could find. We were pleasantly surprised by their facilities and service; there wasn’t any loud music throughout the night, and the breakfast in the morning was an all-you-can-eat buffet. We tried our first “Banh My” that evening—a baguette sandwich with meat and vegetables that comes in a ton of different variations. Buying one on the street is extremely cheap, usually 15.000 to 25.000 VND, which comes to less than 1€ per sandwich. That was our first try at Vietnamese cuisine.
We had to wake up early on Thursday, day 4, because we had booked a day trip from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, which is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Vietnam, and you will find it in every travel guide for visiting Vietnam. We had a great start to the tour when our bus didn’t stop on the side of the road to pick us up, but we had to hop on it while it was slowly moving on the second lane. It took us about 2 hours by bus, and we stopped in a pearl farm where we saw how they implant a small stone into the oysters, which then form a pearl around the stone. After a short stroll through the pearl shop, we got back on the bus. The highlight of the tour advertisement was riding a boat around Ha Long Bay and almost 2000 small islands in it. But before we could get on the boat, we were asked to take a picture of it—just in case we would forget where the boat was parked in any of the ports we would visit.
Sadly, the weather wasn’t perfect—it was cold and windy, and we couldn’t see the faraway islands because of the fog. We had lunch on the boat, and we were among the few people that left the warm inside of the boat and climbed on top to enjoy the views.
On the way, we had three major stops:
- Titop island with 400 steps to a viewpoint on top. The stairs were packed with people, and we were moving painfully slowly. The situation on top was even worse; people were packed together, and everyone wanted to take a picture. We were happy when we turned around and went back down. The view from the top was nice, but the sea around the island was full of tourist boats and smaller cruise ships.
- We could decide between a kayak or bamboo boat to ride around the lagoon in between a few islands. The day was cold, and we were told that we would be sitting in water in a kayak, so we opted for a bamboo boat, but in the end we were sad that we didn’t go for a kayak. It looked more fun, and we would have the freedom to explore the lagoon on our own.
- Sung Sot Cave, also called the Surprise Cave because people were surprised by its size when they discovered it fully. The three chambers that form the cave are increasing in size, with the first one being small and the third one being huge. While inside, we were offered free photo shooting with an option to buy pictures later. Everything that we buy we have to carry with us, so we decided to get only the small keychain pictures that we got for free.
When we got back on the boat, we were served wet towels to freshen up, then we had a snack and a complimentary glass of wine (with free refill). It was interesting to see this type of landscape, an ocean filled with islands wherever you look. We were considering a multi-day variation of this trip where we would sleep on a small cruise ship or in a hotel on the coast, but the price was significantly higher, and there wouldn’t be much more we would see. Just a lot more of the similar islands and landscape. We fell asleep on the ride back, and it went by in a rush.
We were excited to visit Dong Xuan Market, the largest covered market in Hanoi, in the late morning of day 5. It has three floors—the third one offers mostly rolls of different fabric, the second one is full of clothes, but the most interesting is the ground floor, which holds almost everything else. We’re talking fresh fruit, dried fish, nuts, sweets, outdoor clothes and gear, footwear, souvenirs, a few animals, everything for the kitchen, and much, much more. The place is huge with narrow paths between the vendors, and one can easily spend a few hours there. We enjoyed the place, but whatever we would buy, we would have to carry with us for the next month, so we were mostly just looking. What we did buy was half a kilo of random sweets that we wanted to try, but we were disappointed in them in the end—not a single one tasted good, and we just threw them away.
Trang Tien ice cream is a famous dessert in Hanoi. It’s beloved amongst locals and tourists, not only because of its good taste and creamy structure, but also because it’s incredibly cheap. We decided to try it, and we were not disappointed. Not only can you decide between different flavors, but you can also choose between the types of ice cream. They offer ice cream cones, ice cream bars, mochi ice cream (mochi dough around a ball of ice cream), ice cream cups, and ice cream boxes. We tried a few ice cream bars (coconut, taro, and apricot) and mochi balls with apricot ice cream.
We saved the best for last—Train Street in Hanoi is a world-famous attraction. Sort of a tourist trap, a narrow railway track runs through an alley, with houses, cafés, and street vendors on both sides. Every surface of the street that is safe from the passing train is taken up by small chairs and tables; the only way for tourists to see the train up close is to sit at one of the cafés and pay for overpriced drinks. The train usually passes through only twice a day, and when it does, the street can be very crowded. The only way to get a good spot is to be there before everyone else, which usually means over 2 hours of sitting. The primary concern of café owners is having as many chairs as possible, so don’t expect the most comfortable seats. Your ass will probably get numb, but you won’t be bored—you are the perfect target for street vendors because they know that you won’t go away and lose your seat. You can get everything there from clothes, fruits, snacks, cigarettes and lighters, phone glass protectors, postcards, and much more.
We didn’t know anything about the train schedule when we got there, but the street was relatively empty, so we looked it up, and there were almost 3 hours until the train at 7 PM. Because we didn’t have anything else planned for the evening, we walked the alley in both directions and decided on the best spot we could find. The moment we sat down, the lady came to get our order, so we decided to try two local beers at around 2€ per piece (you can get it elsewhere for as cheap as 0.25€). At around T-minus 2 hours, more people started to show up and take better seats by the tracks. It says on the internet that the schedule of the train is approximate, and you should be there at least half an hour early to not miss it. But on that day, the train took its time—it was 45 minutes late. After almost 4 hours of sitting there, we were making an art out of drinking beer slow enough that we didn’t need to buy another one.
Before the train showed up, locals made sure that everyone was off the tracks and seated, and then we were waiting. It was hard to count the number of phones pointed in the direction where the train should come from, and we were one of those people. But there isn’t a video on the internet that could capture the feeling of a big train going by less than half a meter away from you. The ground was shaking, the wind was blowing, the train was loud, and we loved it. Even though the place is heavily commercialized and crowded with tourists, we still enjoyed it and were glad that we visited it.
In the Capsule Station hostel, where we stayed for the last two nights, we booked a trip from Hanoi to Sapa, which included trekking and sleeping at a local homestay. Sapa town is known for the beautiful nature—especially rice terraces and hikes in the area. It’s also located very close to Fansipan mountain, the highest peak of Vietnam. The plan was to get on a sleeper bus in the evening of day 6 and arrive in Sapa at around 5 AM the following morning. That was our last day in Hanoi.
Or was it? I guess we’ll have to see.
Some more pictures:
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