Vietnam, Sep 20 2026

Day 2: To Hanoi

Index

Day 1	Departure Oslo
Day 2	To Hanoi
Day 3	Hanoi sightseeing and night train to Lào Cai
Day 4	Sapa: Mường Hoa Valley
Day 5	Mường Hoa Valley to Nậm Cang
Day 6	Sapa: Mường Hoa Valley
Day 7	Fansipan climbing rest stop/station at 2800m
Day 8	Mt. Fansipan – Bắc Hà
Day 9	Bắc Hà
Day 10	Bắc Hà to Hoàng Su Phì
Day 11	Hà Giang
Day 12	Back to Hanoi
Day 13	Departure Hanoi

Sunday: The 2:10am Hanoi flight departed fairly on time. The expected flight time was 9,5 hours. With the current headache, I just looked forward going into “survival mode”. The flight got significantly worse after the first meal. My stomach reacted very badly to it, and I got terrible cramps.

There was nothing wrong with the food, of course. I don’t know why my stomach got so upset, but the next 3 hours were absolutely horrible. In the end, I “collapsed” and went into a coma-like condition.

1 hour before landing in Hanoi, there was no improvement in my condition but within the next hour, things changed quite a bit. The stomach was reasonably stable, and I started to get acclimated to the cabin pressure.

By the time we went in for landing (around 4pm local time), I was finally able to communicate with Anne.

That was in the nick of time, because the program for the rest of the afternoon was quite busy. I don’t even want to think about how that would have been like with the headache.

After an annoyingly long and slow immigration queue and getting our luggage, we met our local guide – which – based on the way he pronounced his name – I will refer to as Quyền.

We went over to the ATMs and got VND (Vietnamese đồng). Not having any clue how much I would need during our stay (all sleepovers and meals were already paid for), I decided to withdraw 3 000 000 VND (NOK 1166,03)

Then we got on a bus, heading for our hotel – Babylon Grand Hotel & Spa. Afterwards, we would go to a restaurant for dinner, followed by a “water puppet theatre” (whatever that was all about)

Then – a change of plans. Due to heavy traffic, we would not have time to check in at the hotel, if we were to have dinner before the 8pm water puppet theatre. As such, it was decided that we should go directly for dinner first.

I kept it to myself, but in my head, I kept asking – why are we going to a water puppet theatre???

Dinner was at Club America Latina in the French Quarter, Hoàn Kiếm. I didn’t understand what this place had to do with “America” or “Latina”. But who cares. We were hungry.

The food was very nice. It started with a tasteful soup and then one dish after another followed.

The only thing we had to cover ourselves, was the drinks. A general rule of thumb throughout our stay was: Water: 10,000, Coke/Pepsi: 20,000 and beer: 30,000. Some places charged the double, though.

It was altogether weird to deal with these amounts. A Coke or a Pepsi costed NOK 7-8, which is fairly cheap, seen through Norwegian glasses. But 20,000 feels like a lot! I am sure the Vietnam tourist industry would benefit a lot if they got rid of 3 0’s…

After dinner, the group gathered and it was time to walk over to the water puppet theatre.

It was nice to finally do some walking, but the temperature was way higher than most Norwegians are comfortable with. Not to mention the air humidity. The heat was the first thing that struck me. The second was all the people! And we just saw a handful of the 9,4 million citizens living in Hanoi.

Then we arrived at the puppet theatre.

The Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre presents múa rối nước (making puppets dance on water), a uniquely Vietnamese tradition that originated in the flooded rice fields of the Red River Delta around a thousand years ago. The colourful performances mix scenes from traditional rural life – farming, fishing and village festivities – with Vietnamese folklore and mythical creatures such as dragons.

So, the background for the play was clear enough. But this was performed in Vietnamese, not English.

Based on synchronous laughter, I understood that there were Vietnamese in the audience and that they thought this quite funny. I did my best to understand what was going on in front of me, but my mind started to drift in the direction of the hotel and the bed.

I assumed that this theatre play was quite an important thing for the Vietnamese people. And maybe it is, but I did some research and found that by 2025, 90% of audience were international tourists. So maybe the Vietnamese are gradually losing interest in this particular artform?

I was “over the moon” when I understood that the play was over. I admit I wondered why this was on the trip’s program, but in hindsight, I can see a link between the play and what we later would see on the rice fields in the countryside over the next days.

Back on the warm streets, I was now good and ready for the hotel.

The bus took us back to the Babylon Grand hotel, where we got keys to our rooms.

Being registered as a couple, Anne and I got our own room. 27 hours after leaving Årnes, I could finally lower my shoulders, remove a few worries and conclude that we had finally gotten here…