Sat-Mon, Jan 6-8 - Flying to and Arriving in Hanoi

Sat-Mon, Jan 6-8 - Flying to and Arriving in Hanoi

At 3 PM on Saturday, we tricked Mitsy into her cat carrier with some tuna treats and took her howling down to the Cat House Hotel. She’s been particularly affectionate lately, so we felt that much worse about betraying her!   At five we drove a rental car down to LAX arriving at 7:30 and checked into EVA Air for our flight to Taipei and then to Hanoi. They had explicit instructions about the size and weight of carry-on luggage, so I had loaded my checked bags with electronics and other things I’d rather hand carry….come to find out they only weighed my rolling carry-on and not my handbag or Bob’s backpack!  Next time I’ll ignore their rules and they probably will charge me for excess weight. 

In the meantime, I (HH) had left Tucson at 2 PM and wandered LAX for a few hours waiting for the EVA ticket counter to open so that I could check my bags.  I finally go to do that at 6:45 PM and headed on to the Star Alliance lounge.

Outside of Security, Tom Bradley is total chaos, but once past that, it is an art-filled interesting place.  We could see my sister, Hilary, way up on a sixth-floor balcony in the Executive Lounge as she’s flying Business Class. 

Very cool panels in LAX Tom Bradley Terminal - the graphics completely change every so often

We met up and boarded our 777 for the 14-hour flight, Hil into her private cocoon (which comes with PJs!), while we settled into our Premium Economy seats which are really pretty comfortable with lots of leg room, pretty good food and very attentive service.  I watched Barbie, Mission Impossible, and got about 6-8 hours of sleep. We got breakfast and landed at 5:30 AM in Taipei for three hours.  

Fortunately, Taipei airport is interesting enough that we had a good time wandering around looking at all the glitzy retail (all open at that hour!), art and cultural exhibits, and beautiful vertical arrangements of colorful succulents lining the walkways.   We ordered Cappuccinos to revive us and then boarded the three-hour flight to Hanoi. 

Living walls along one of Taipei’s airport Terminal C

Life size airline pilot made of Legos!

Textile wall at Gate C8 in Taipei

Arriving at Hanoi’s airport

It was cloudy so we couldn’t see much of the landscape until we landed into Hanoi’s large glass enclosed terminal.   It didn’t seem very crowded until we reached a packed vast room for passport control.   It looked like total chaos, but Hil sorted it out and we found a line that moved slowly but steadily, and we got through, picked up all our bags and met Tien, our local guide.

We loaded into a large van and drove the forty miles along long boulevards lined with palms and bougainvillea and tropical fruit farms.   The farms are giving way to large apartment complexes as the city continues to grow.  In the inner city are areas of beautiful French villas and charming tall skinny houses with whimsical decorations and architectural styles.

Fruit street vendors and ever present motor bikes

Small sample of tall skinny houses

Pagoda in Hanoi

Tien said we were stopping for lunch.  We weren’t particularly hungry, but it had been planned to occupy us until our rooms were ready after 2 PM. We stopped at a little café and were served a meal of seven different dishes: shrimp fritters, pork with rice noodles, rice with veggie, and a dessert of coconut juice with tiny green cube of jelly that was great!

Lunch menu - we were served all of these dishes!

Sample of 4 of the dishes

We then were driven to the very fancy Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel and welcomed with cups of lemon ginger tea and were greeted by David Bishop whom we hadn’t seen in five years, since our trip to Madagascar.  We introduced him to Hilary and finally got to our lovely rooms to collapse, shower, repack, etc.

Pool area at the Metropole Hotel

Side of the central courtyard at the hotel

View from my room (HH)

We met David for dinner at the outdoor restaurant at the hotel.  They have an extensive menu and the weather was perfect for eating outside.  We were all ready to collapse after eating.   We’ll meet up tomorrow at 9:30 for a city tour with Tien.