People in Hanoi are perhaps the most active I’ve seen in any city. Walking around Hoan Kiem Lake on an early morning, I saw people doing all sorts of activities for exercise, as well as using all sorts of fixtures for exercises. Like the guy who used a bench to do ab exercises by hooking…
To get from Hanoi to Siem Reap, we booked a flight on Vietnam Airlines. I had tried and failed to book award tickets for this segment using FlyingBlue miles, but the online award search tool kept wanting to route us through Guangzhou on China Southern instead of the nonstop on Vietnam Airlines, even though I…
I normally wouldn’t write up a review of a hostel stay, but I feel like the Golden Time Hostel 2 in Hanoi deserves a special mention. It’s not fancy by any means (but it’s a step up from a normal hostel since all of the rooms are private rooms), but the service was incredible. The…
Back to the trip reporting! Apologies for the long pause, but I hope to do a better job of finishing my trip reports in a somewhat timely manner… One of my friends told me that I should go to Halong Bay, so I tried to do research on the best tour options. Part of the…
I write a lot of trip reports. I mostly write trip reports because I personally find them helpful when I’m preparing for trips, and I enjoy reading well-written, well-photographed reports by other people even if I’m not. I’m not going to lie: it also helps for SEO, and some of my most frequently visited posts…
This hotel is one of the few cheap Hilton redemptions after Hilton’s devaluation a couple of years ago. Since it’s a category 2 hotel, it’s only 10k Hilton points per night. In terms of Western hotels in Hanoi attainable using points, there’s also a category 2 Sheraton, a couple of IHG properties, a category 4 Marriott,…
For US passport holders, we need a visa to enter Vietnam. I had pre-arranged a visa on arrival, which meant that I had sent my passport, travel information, and a nominal fee ($9 per person) to a somewhat sketchy visa agent recommended to me by a friend (Vietnam Visa Pro, if you’re wondering). In return,…
After spending a day in Bangkok and relaxing in the lounge, we boarded our short flight to Hanoi. We were departing from a remote stand, so we had to take a bus to the plane. On the plus side, we were parked by an A380, so I got to ogle a plane and reminisce about…
Q: Where is the lounge? A: Terminal 3, near Gate 74. It’s right beside the airside connector between Terminal 3 and the International G gates, and it’s where premium security at SFO used to be for United. Q: Can I access this lounge even if I’m not flying United? A: Yes! Any boarding pass at…
Upon arrival at the Bangkok airport, I was greeted with a buggy to take me to the lounge or immigration. I originally had a relatively short layover, but Thai decided to cancel the BKK-HAN flight that I was on, so I had a pretty lengthy layover instead, so I ended up deciding to spend some…
