Hanoi

Izzat, Joey and I decided to plan a trip to enjoy sightseeing in Hanoi.

Hanoi was cold. And gloomy. It was our first trip.

Pre-planning

Conversion rate was 1 SGD to 18270 Vietnamese Dong.

Apps

Last mile transport: Grab (Gojek has left Vietnam in 2024)

Translation: Google Translate

Mapping: Google Maps

Charging

Vietnam can have two types of power sockets, and they can supply either 110V or 220V so be sure to check your appliance thoroughly. We did not find 110V appliances during our visit.

I believe the use of these plugs are from French, American and Japanese influence on Vietnam.

Phone data plans, prices

Prioritise this before the trip to the airport. I recommend getting an eSIM ahead of your trip, you can make purchase any time, but the activation pre-requisites include having a reliable connection + familiarity with your phone's settings.

I found reddit recommendations to have the best island coverage with Vinaphone. For a 4-day trip, I bought the 7 GB data plan and it was well in excess!

Wifi at the accomodation wasn't the best, and I was uploading multiple 10 MB jpgs daily. Purchasing an eSIM plan from a reliable network was well worth it.

Spending

$500 flight ticket (includes return flight)

$15 airbnb per night

$15 insurance

$70 Ha Long Bay cruise

Our trip

...

We planned to visit Ha Long Bay too.

Locations

We stayed east of the Hoan Kiem lake.

Eating great stuff

And where to find them.

There are a few more places we've eaten at. And a list of recommendations given to us while chatting with some tourists from Britain.

Interesting places