Impounded On The Way To Hanoi
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2011
1
115
195
Trip End
Feb 28, 2013
Where I stayed
Hanoi, Ha Nội, Vietnam
Sunday, May 13, 2012
17.7 hours on the Sleeping Bus
Holiday Diamond Hotel, $25
Options
Three Hue to Hanoi options; Night bus (14 hours-$13.50 each), train (13 hours $33-$57) or a 1.2 hour flight for $82. We prefer to see the scenery along the way but the day train departs too early so we settled for the undesirable night bus. Jennifer advised against trying to get on the Halong Bay tour on our day of arrival in Hanoi because the bus might be delayed. Is she clairvoyant?
Who's on the Bus?
At 5 PM, we were waved goodbye by the entire staff of the Holiday Hotel and we got the feeling that they truly hated to see us go.
The beds in the bus were bunks in with single rows along the windows and a double center row. Our seats were next to window towards back. We picked the top. Even though the top rocks more than the bottom, the top had air vents to keep us a little cooler. It took close to an hour, picking up more passengers, before we finally followed the river out of town. The bus didn't completely fill up.
Police Stop
About 4 hours into our trip, we were stopped by police with flashing lights. The luggage compartment was opened and several boxes wrapped in black plastic were pulled off. It didn't seem liked a random stop. The police must have been tipped off to something. We ended up waiting at the road for an hour before the bus was escorted to the police station but not before the bus made a quick stop along the way and hid a box along the side of the road!
First, it was assumed it must be drug related. A Buddhist nun on the bus with us explained they were smuggling alcohol and the bus was impounded until the driver came up with 60 million dong ($2800) before we could leave. That's a big fine! We found it hard to believe the boxes contained just alcohol. Maybe the nun added one to many zeros on her translation. We ended up waiting for hours for a fine to be paid. They must have resolved the issue and at midnight we were allowed to leave and back on the way to Hanoi.
Old Quarter in Hanoi
We were dropped off in front of insurance company in outskirts of Hanoi and looked for the person from the Holiday hotel that was schedule to pick us up for the drive into the old quarter. We hoped the hotel had been in contact with the bus company and would be waiting for us. No such luck. We called the hotel and the said someone was on the way. Our ride arrived on a motorcycle and at first he looked xe om taxies before deciding we had too much luggage to fit on the one motorcycle. He put us in a real taxi.
It was a mix of sun and overcast and very hot and humid in Hanoi. We checked in then explored around the old quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake and found a decent Panini for lunch.
Rain and clouds were forecast for our Halong Bay tour. Other Halong Tour clients returned to our hotel because of a typhoon warning. Boats weren't allowed to stay overnight in the bay. The warning was no longer in effect but we decided to postpone our Halong Bay tour to June 2nd with hopes for better weather. We’ll go to Sapa a day earlier than planned. The people at the tour desk at the hotel were able to switch everything around for us. We'll now leave on the sleeper-train to Sapa tomorrow night.
Hanoi doesn’t have much of interest for us. The most exciting event is the 'water puppet’ show. They do 5 shows a night and all were sold out!
Dave had a pretty fast grip of the lay- out of the "old quarter" with its 36 narrow guild streets, named after the products produced and sold on each in the old days. To me they all looked the same, streets lined with small bars, restaurants, juice stands and many cafe stalls with the 6" stools filling sidewalks where mostly Vietnamese come to socialize. We got back to the hotel drenched in perspiration.
