Vietnam 2013: First Impressions!

We've arrived and already love this place!
We had some worries about Vietnam Airlines after checking out some forums, but our fears were unfounded. The aircraft was as modern and the service as good as any other flight we had been on - but it was such a long flight!
We had a touch-down in Frankfurt to pick up more passengers and all had to get off the plane for an hour. It was frustrating when you just wanted to get to your destination! But after 13 hours, we finally arrived at Hanoi airport. We then had to queue for a weird Visa process, and although it seemed chaotic to us, I think they did actually have a system - it just seemed to take forever! But at least we ended up with some great entries in our passports.
There was a Vietnamese guy waiting in Arrivals with our names on a board and we loaded our cases into his mini-bus and were away.
Oh my goodness!! It is just one massive free-for-all out there. It seems that everyone in Vietnam owns a scooter and they all seem to be on the road at the same time! Horns are hooting incessantly and the scooters, cars, vans and trucks all weave around each other, seemingly ignoring any road markings or traffic signs. And as for Health & Safety - my brother-in-law, Rob, and work colleague,Mark, would have a field day - or a heart attack!
There don't seem to be any rules, some wear crash helmets, but lots don't. It seems as though you can cram as many people onto the scooter as you want (we saw Mum, Dad and two children on more than one occasion), and as for what they carry with them - it seems to be whatever they can possibly fit on - even a fridge-freezer!!

We arrived at The Sunway Hotel at 7am and had a classic moment when the concierge and his helpers were waiting to take our suitcases. The concierge held his hand out to take Paul Halder's suitcase and Paul misunderstood and shook his hand! We all fell about laughing and had to compose ourselves before trying to check in! So of course at 7am, our room's weren't ready. Just what we needed after a long flight, but they were incredibly gracious and polite about it (especially Lucy and Sophie) and said they would try to get our rooms ready for about 11am, so there was only one thing to do - explore! It was absolutely fascinating just aimlessly wandering the streets of Hanoi. We passed a row of what may have been pet shops (there were dozens of birds in ornate cages hanging over tour heads), but then there were bowls of maggots and grubs and bags of what seemed to be crickets, grasshoppers or locusts - all alive - ready for purchase. We're not sure if they were food for pets or people!
We found a street cafe with tables and chairs on the roadside and delighted the owners by stopping for a drink. Then we sat back and watched the chaos! There was a never-ending stream of mostly scooters, but intertwined with cars and vans, all heading down the street. We couldn't stop laughing at the variety of things we saw carried on them - stacks of chairs (probably at least 12), about forty trays of eggs, 7 bags of cement, and the best one - a guy steering and a guy on pillion with a car windscreen balanced between them! We could have sat there all day. We were across the road from a park where there were lots of older ladies (take note Mumsie!) doing Tai Chi exercises together - it was lovely to watch. The guys had 2 big bottles of beer and Lou and I had 2 cokes - we paid about £2 - which included a tip! We were then feeling a bit peckish and found a nice looking Vietnamese cafe for some early lunch - it was a disaster! We hadn't a clue what we were ordering and played safe with some pork/mushroom and chicken/mushroom spring rolls. What we didn't realise was that the rice pancakes were steamed and incredibly slimy and anemic! Not a great experience for our first venture into Vietnamese food!

Steamed rice pancakes - not recommended!

On the way back, we saw another amazing Health & Safety phenomenon - cables dangling down from the street lights wrapped in plastic carrier bags!

Live (?) cables dangling down in the road.

There seems to be a perfect blend of old and new culture in this city, with lots of ladies in traditional dress carrying their wares in the traditional way.

By the time we made our way back to the hotel, they had our rooms ready. Beautiful rooms with a great big bed, which we fell straight into as by then we had been awake for 24 hours.

View of the city from our hotel window

Our Sunway Hotel room

After about 5 hours sleep, we took advantage of the hotel "happy hour" before venturing out to find an evening meal.

Hotel lobby

After the disaster at lunchtime, we decided to play safe and head for Al Fresco, which sounded somewhat Italian. We took a taxi there and had the usual hair-raising ride. There is definitely a total disregard for all things legal - red lights don't seem to make any difference and people seem to head down the wrong side of the road and therefore straight at you all the time! We seems to spend the whole journey 'oohing' and 'aahing' and falling about in fits of laughter! We were dropped off outside Al Frescos, but were drawn to Jacksons - what a result! The food was to die for (not Vietnamese. but we've still got time to find our way around that adventure). The food was absolutely top class and the staff were so lovely.