On the front page of this blog is a picture of Camellia Hotel. This is where I spent my first two weeks in Hanoi. It's located in Hanoi's Old Quarter, where there are many hotels like this. They range in price from $5 a night for the backpackers to $100+ a night at the Hanoi Hilton.
I paid $18 a night at Camellia. It's not fancy but clean and I have my own private bathroom.
Breakfast is $1.50, which includes 2 eggs, a baguette, coffee and a plate of fruits. What a deal. I enjoyed it every morning. Fruits can range from mango, water melon, dragon fruit, banana, etc.
More about fruits later because there is an abundance of tropical fruits here. They are all very good and tasty. I will post pictures of them.
The staff at Camellia Hotel is great. They are all very friendly and helpful. I don't think they get paid very much but they always have a smile on their face, especially the lady who serves us breakfast. She is always ready to please, serving the fruits that I like.
I spent the first two weeks walking around the Old Quarters a lot. I want to get a feel of the city. The first weekend was hot and humid and it is still humid. This place is busy....there are lots of people everywhere and a lot of traffic, especially motorcycles. You have to get used to the noise.
You have to learn how to cross the streets. I think this the biggest challenge for foreigners here. The Vietnamese don't follow traffic rules. They don't give way to other vehicles or pedestrians. You just have to walk across the street and make them miss you. You don't try to miss them. It took me a few days to get used to this. Sometimes I put up my hand just to make sure they notice me. So far I've been lucky....I've not been hit.
The Old Quarter is where the original Hanoi started. There are all kinds of businesses here. The same kind of businesses are located on the same street. There are also a lot of small hotels like Camellia here, catering to the many European and Australian tourists. There are also a lot of restaurants that also cater to the tourists. They are always pricier than to the local street food but looks cleaner and usually are air-conditioned.
Every weekend they block off one of the major streets in the Old Quarter and make it into a night market. They sell all kinds of cheap stuff - belts, clothes, sunglasses, DVDs', etc. There are a lot of imitation stuff being sold openly. You can get a DVD of a new movie for about $1. This night market stretches for at least a mile. It's fun to walk through it and watch the locals. I like to walk through there just to watch the people and what they sell. Sometimes I stop to get a drink - like a coconut drink right out of a young coconut or sugar cane juice.
Another common sight you see is groups of young people sitting one the sidewalk drinking lemon tea. Instead of hanging out a bar drinking beer, these young Vietnamese (late teens and twenties) sit on plastic stools that are about a foot high and just chatting with their friends and eating sunflower seeds. It's a cheap way to hang out. These places even have valets for their motorcycles.
I found one of these places not far from Camellia Hotel, next to a Catholic Church. What attracted me to this place is the mango milk they serve. It's like a smoothie but not as thick. They put in real mango. The best part is it's only 10,000 dongs or about 50 cents.
