Day 41! I had a great time in Cat Ba but now it’s time to experience the city life again!

I started my morning at 7:30am with flipping on the Super Bowl to see a very low scoring game, which I was glad I didn’t wake up an hour earlier to catch the start.

But it was finally time to leave Cat Ba! It’s been a wonderful few days but it’s time to move on to the next city, Hanoi!

After eating a very large and free breakfast, I packed up my things, checked out of the hostel, and linked up with Valentin and Merel to roll out to the ferry.

We decided to take the ferry that was on the opposite end of the island because it wove through Halong Bay.

But… after we drove the 30 minutes to the pier, we found out that the next ferry wasn’t until 11:30am and it was 9am.

And THEN, we found out that the actual next ferry time was 1pm because it’s the lowest time for tourism.

So after some deliberation, we decided to bite the bullet and drive to the other side of the island to catch the faster, less pretty ferry ride off the island.

We arrived to the pier just in time as the ferry was starting to board!

The ferry time this time around was gorgeous! It has become much warmer in the north over the past few days and it’s not like the cold and cloudy day we had when we arrived to Cat Ba.

We spent the entirety of the 30 minute ride enjoying the sun on the top level of the ferry. While we sat up there, we watched the final bit of the Super Bowl and saw Kansas City win another championship!

Shout out to all my friends back in KC who got to party it up tonight! Hope it was a blast!

We then tried heading to Haiphong to find a mechanic but fell short just like we did in Cat Ba since everything was still closed for Tet.

At this point we split ways with Merel since she was going to a different city than us (her trip is coming to an end).

It took us another 2.5 hours to get to Hanoi but we rolled into very empty streets! It’s pretty interesting being in a country that basically shuts down for a week.

(I didn’t take many pictures of this ride since it was all on the highway and not very picturesque)

While driving through the city we found a gas station and then found a place open to eat where we got delicious soup for 50,000 Dong!

The lady was very excited to have us eating at her restaurant and took a picture of Valentin and I while we were eating.

I was loving the soup in the cold weather. I’m very happy it’s warming up, but steaming hot soup in hot weather isn’t always the nicest, so I’ll enjoy it to the max while I can!

While eating, we searched for hostels to stay at. Once we found the one, I booked a room and it turned out I booked it for tomorrow night. So we decided to drive to the hostel and see if they had any space for us.

They didn’t, so we went around the corner and down an alley and found a place for the night (we might just stay here or we might go to the other hostel tomorrow, we’ll see).

While searching for a hostel, we stumbled (almost literally) into a mechanic! I asked him for an oil change and he did it right on the spot. It was very nice to cross that off my list of to do’s and Kilby (my bike) was in desperate need of one!

We settled into our hostel for a bit and relaxed before heading back out into the city!

Valentin and I headed back out into the city where we wandered to an ATM and enjoyed looking at the architecture in the city.

This building seemed very out of place for SE Asia, but with French colonialism it makes sense.

Valentin had heard rumors about a place selling $0.50 beer, so we started our hunt for the night at the alleged beer corner on Pho Ta Hien street.

We decided to sit down at a restaurant where the beers were 20,000 Dong. Cheap, but not $0.50.

While we sat here, we researched what the name of the cheap beer was. It was Bia Hoi! This draft beer is super cheap and some signs even claim it’s 10,000 Dong!

After this restaurant we found another restaurant selling Bia Hoin for 15,000 Dong!

We sat down here and drank a few beers. But while we were here a girl from Germany, Lea, came and joined us!

After having a few cheap beers, we headed to find another, potentially cheaper spot.

On the way we spoke with some locals who told us about a bar that had cheap Bia Hoi so we started walking there.

However, on the way, we were stopped by Annie, who was a bar rep for one of the bars. She originally offered us 1 free shot per beer we bought, but after we jokingly said 10 shots per beer she said okay… so we went and hung out with her for a little bit.

Even after the shots, Annie staid around and chatted with us for a bit about her life, her job, and her family!

She was very sweet but after a nice amount of time at her bar, it was time to move on!

We then went to a restaurant that claimed to have 10,000 Bia Hoi and cheap Banh Mi’s… but the beer was very watery and the food was subpar, so we worked our way back to the 15k beer that we started with!

It was a nice first night in Hanoi! I’m excited to explore more of the city tomorrow and see what it has in store for us!

-Elie