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Arriving in Vietnam

First we needed to get there, fortunately only 2 planes were involved in this trip but we still arrived pretty late at night in Vietnam. At least this time, we manage to leave during the day and even if it was late we didn't had to pull an all nighter. The flights themselves went pretty smoothly (Here more information about getting from Puerto Princesa to Hanoi vietnam) the hard part for us was to wait at the vietnamese customs. For the first time in our trip, we didn’t get an automatic 30 days visa upon arrival. (Witch is a pretty good score board for the canadian passport) We needed to request a visa prior to our arrival (fortunately we knew that, Yep they may let you take a plane to vietnam without the proper papers...) So we requested our visa online. (Here’s more information about visa in vietnam) Once we arrived at the airport, we went straight to the custom office to get our visa (We had the confirmation online but not the actual visa)

There’s a separate office but it’s pretty obvious since most tourists need to get there before passing through the custom line. At this point, we needed to withdraw money since the vietnamese visa isn’t free and they don’t take credit card payment. From there we went to the counter, filled out the form they gave us and waited…. eventually they called up our name gave us back our passport with a fresh vietnamese visa in it and we were good to go! We were fortunate enough that at the time of our arrival the airport was practically empty so the wait wasn’t too long but if 4 other planes arrived at the same time, your should arm yourself with patience, you are going to be there for a while.

SCAM ALERT
Once we got out of the airport, we proceeded to call a Grab which is normally what we do. But a few second earlier a guy came up to us with a bright green “GRAB” application on his phone and says “I am on grab I will give you the same price but if we don’t use the application, I am sure to get you as my passenger” (This happened on multiple occasion in Vietnam) Our late night and 8 hour of travel brain thought it was a good idea and we hopped in. Only once we were on the highway that my brain reconnected with the rest of my body and start thinking about organ trafficking…. But the driver conduct us to the propers location without any problem. (We were also tracking where we were going with our phone, kind of an insurance in case he was going in the wrong direction, (Here some safety tips)) My brains wasn’t complete wrong to panic, there was a scam included in the procedure but my organs weren’t the end goal. Once we arrived at our destination the price suddenly changed but in a clever way! The driver tried to argue that the price was for one person and since we were two we had to pay double. Unfortunately for the driver Alexis was having none of it and start arguing with him. I think the driver got scared since he was barely tall enough to come up to my armpits… let alone Alexis armpit… We did pay a little more since we didn’t have change for our bill and of course he didn’t either. Afterall, we arrived safely to our hotel. Our lesson was learn, always, always , always use the app to order grab, don’t trust strangers. We saw that scam again in another airport which lead Alexis to yell and tell other people around that they were a scam…. They ran away pretty fast and at least no other tourist got caught that day!
SCAM ALERT

We were only staying one day in Ha Noi, therefore the next day we woke up and started visiting the city.

Before going anywhere, Alexis had to test the local coffee which was delicious. I loved wandering around in this town there was small business everywhere from halloween décoration only shop to flower shop.

We even found a huge market with an endless amount of spice!

The best part about this day was the Phò. We were walking across the town and started to get hungry so we stop at something that look like a restaurant. Once we got in someone ask us if we wanted the Phò with everything in it, so we said Yes, and then where guide to a table behind the kitchen. Yes behind, it pretty much look like the family’s living room.

That was the best Pho we have ate in all of our travel including the rest of ours stay in vietnam!

The next day we were back at the airport to fly to Da Nang. The second city on our list for vietnam.