Winter 17/18 – Off to Vietnam

Two months in Thailand went too fast – as usual. The morning after my birthday party it was time to take a TukTuk to the airport in Chiang Mai.

Tuk-Tuk to the airport

At NOK-Air they have Angels and Butterflies!!

At Thai Lion Air they have Chinese tourists. Hmm – but they are cheaper to fly, still I should look into Nok next time!

The plane is waiting for us to board. Have a look at the smoke in the back!

A lot of space in that one!

Looks quite ok

The nice staff of Thai Lion Air put me in the 1st row, 3 seats for me, and more legroom. They changed the lights to blue for the flight.

Chiang Mai on a normal day at the beginning of February. Can you see the smoke?

Hanoi – Vietnam

There was a time the fires in the North started at the end of March or April. But this time is long gone. If the Thais had not set fields and forest on fire in January, I could have stayed a bit longer and avoided Tết in Vietnam. But this year (again), I arrived a few days before. Most of the shops are closed, and everybody is on the move to see the family. After all, Tết or the Vietnamese New Year is the most important celebration in Vietnam. The plane got into Hanoi International in the evening. You never know how long you need at immigration, so I usually have a hotel for the first night in Hanoi. On this trip, I needed to change money as well, so I had to wait for the next morning anyway to get the best rates for my trip.

The airport bus to downtown Hanoi. Free WiFi and only 1,15€ at the time of travelling.

The Golden Wings Hotel in Hanoi. Should have read the description better next time. Comes without a private bathroom. Well, no problem for one night, but the bathroom was way too small to even take a picture of it. If you stay here, take any room but this one.

2 Beds, Tv, Ac, a table and chair – everything super clean and the bed – a dream!!

Comes with a shared bathroom – that is super small – so the toothbrush packaging makes a lot of sense :-)

Local beer check – € 0,40 and up. Good!

The imported beer starts at € 0,70 up to 2,11€ for 500 ml. Super cheap compared to Thailand!

Watering the flowers in the morning. You see – you do not see! Traffic that is. Almost none in Hanoi!

On the way to the money changers – OMG!

This is my favorite place if you are ever in need of a money changer in Hanoi

And just a few more steps, you can get the best French Croissants I’ve ever had in the city.

With the local bus to the bus station and from there to Ninh Binh. 70.000 Dong – about 2,60€

At the place of my friends outside Ninh Binh

They just got the house and built the new part between the two old houses. The green roof, that is. Lots of work waiting to clean the construction site and start the garden in front of the house, and at the orange spot in the upper left corner.

There is a small mountain behind the house

Lots of construction along the streets

You can imagine how it looks with blue sky!

The older part of the area – there was a time when building your house next to the road was not that important

This time of the year: Rice planting season

You can see all the footprints

Lots of work

Work work work…

And more work – people in the northern part of Vietnam decorate their houses with peach blossoms (hoa đào). We gave this one a nice pot and lots of that red earth from behind the house.

Dinner at the house

The Tet fire! You would not believe it – the government speaker was blaring Happy New Year from ABBA!!!

You go to the house of relatives, and relatives come to your house – basic 101 Tet holiday season. And food – a lot of food! And moonshine – even more moonshine!

A very happy Viet!

And his father is happy as well

Lots of vegetarian options for me. What a pleasant afternoon. And beer – they had beer as well. This evening I went to bed early.

Old and young come together for a few days

They eat, drink, and talk a lot too

The old guys trade stories from the good old times

The only thing that I understand is when I have to drink another moonshine with them – basically every few minutes.

Of course, Tết Nguyên Đán is way more – just food and moonshine and visiting relatives. If you are interested, Wikipedia has an excellent article about the Vietnamese New Year celebration.