27th April '16
We landed at the No Bai International Airport twelve past midnight and the temperature was 27ºC which was kinda warm.The Noi Bai Airport is nice and vast, at first you will mistake it for our very own NAIA because of the structure until you step outside. It was not as toxic as well when we arrived, not so many people are waiting outside except for cabs and airport shuttles.
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| photo courtesy of m00nchildr0cks |
The first thing I noticed about Hanoi was the impressive roads/highways. It was consistent even in the northernmost parts of Vietnam. However, despite the nice roads, the traffic is still no good: motorcycles here, there and everywhere, crossing the streets can be very stressful especially if you're from a country with very little to no traffic and efficient traffic system, good thing I wasn't as our traffic system back home is somewhat similar except Vietnam has more motorcycles than usual.
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| Little Hanoi Diamond Hotel lobby... photo courtesy of m00nchildr0cks |
Going back, we reached out hotel finally yay! We were just wondering why the hotel was closed when we got there since the roll up was pulled all the way down (I was even wondering why the hotel has a roll up ‘cuz it’s usually only used by general merchandise stores back home and never a hotel lol). As soon as we stepped inside, we were welcomed warmly by the receptionist and yes the Little Hanoi Diamond Hotel lobby looked exactly like the photos found on their website except it was a little smaller once you’re there. Boy, it was even warmer inside the hotel. The good thing was, it’s right in the heart of the Hanoi Old Quarter so everything is pretty much walking distance.
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| Finally settled in. |
The first thing we arranged was our tour for the next two days. Since we arrived at the hotel a little over 2:00 in the morning, we will only catch a few hours of sleep and come morning time we have to stroll around the Old Quarter so we asked the guy receptionist if we could customize our tour which is technically in few hours. We told him we’d like to visit few places and showed our very own list/itinerary. He advised that he could arrange a cab for us for $15 for the city tour although the places we’d like to visit are walking distance from our hotel and we could finish everything in just one day. We moved on then to our next task which is to book a tour package called the Bai Dinh Pagoda & Trang An Eco Tourism for $35 per person. He gladly booked it for us and we were advised someone will call us on the day of the tour to remind us. All set then, we’ll take care of the city tour ourselves in the morning since we don’t know what time we’ll be up then the Bai Dinh Package for the 28th. We walked up to our room (because oh no there’s no elevator!) on the 3rd floor and sweat out even more, too early for morning work out eh?
We were impressed with our room because it looked good with the chandelier and all plus it was spacious as well. The beds, dresser, tables, chairs, all looked antique, we even have our very own balcony.
My concerns though: first, one of the closet door handle is broken. Second, the toiletries were very few for two people (good thing I took the free toiletries provided for by The Wings Transit Lounge before our flight and used them instead whilst at the Little Hanoi Diamond) and third, no coffee pot. I hate it when there’s no coffee pot every time I stay in a hotel because I want to drink coffee early in the morning and tea before I doze off in the evening. Anyways, I’ll make a separate review about the hotel later on.
We slept around 3:00 past in the morning, and oh it’s already my sister and I’s birthday wee! I’m officially another calendar day older. Geez.
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