After making the last preparations the night before, we finally set off on the morning of the 17th of April.
After a hearty (and notably German) breakfast of bread buns, cold-cuts and eggs, we walked with the entirety of our belongings for the next three months on our backs through the old town of Buxtehude to the train station. At the train station we "bumped into" my grandfather who wanted to see us off on our journey. After we said our farewells, we boarded the train to the airport.
We flew from Hamburg via Dubai to Hanoi. The flight with Emirates went off without a hitch and we arrived on time in Hanoi.
From the airport, we took the local bus 86 to the city and headed to our hostel. The bus dropped us at Long Bien Bus Interchange which meant walking through the Old Quarter with it's bustling streets, food stalls and many many motorbikes. There are no side walks, so you have to dodge in and out of the bikes like a local whilst processing the myriad of impressions hitting your senses from all sides. On our short walk from the bus we passed food stalls selling anything from fresh fruit to cuts of meat and dried fish products as well as two roosters (we're not sure if they were being kept as pets or dinner) as well as a few bakeries and shops selling various other knick-knacks. After checking in at the hostel, stowing our luggage and getting cleaned up (which included peeling out of our sticky travel clothes), we headed back out into the bustling city streets to hunt for some dinner. We ended up finding a great Bun Cha (Bún chả) restaurant, which you can read more about on here. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel in time for the free beer hour, mingled with some of the other guests and then turned in early to get some much needed Zs and recover from the long trip.
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