To get from Germany (from where I started this whole journey) to Vietnam, flying is kind of your only option, if you want to make it there in a reasonable amount of time. So i booked a flight!

And because I’m not King Midas, I booked it way in advance because that saves you a lot of money. I also made sure to choose an airline that didn’t have a reputation of (skechily) rebooking flights without notice and then refusing refunds or having similarly fun side hustles. I ended up with Vietnam Airlines (kind of on the nose, I know).

Is it the only one that flies this route? No. Is it the best? Probably not either! From a certain point onwards pricing played a way bigger role in my decision making than aledged quality.

To be fair, the service was good. All flight attendants (and even the attendees) were very polite and the food was nice. And I say that even though they woke us up two hours before landing (aka 4 am) and then served me chicken and potatoes as breakfast, or “a midnight snack”, according to my internal clock. (Again, in the name of fairness: I could have chosen the omlette, but didn’t feel like I could handle that at the time)

And yet, here I am, sleep deprived but in one fairly happy piece.

About 11 hours (and the most suspect fruit salad I’ve ever seen outside of a can) later i arrived at Hanoi’s international airport Noi Bai. The first thing I saw, after getting of the plane, were a ton of signs forbidding fotographs and video recordings. That certainly set a certain type of mood.

I didn’t let that deter me though (not that I had choice, really) so I went ahead to officially cross the border and reclaim my things.

And let me tell you. Despite the whole airport being way smaller than I expected and my flight making up basically the entirety of it’s occupants, it took me over a hour to get my passport stamped and pick up my backpack. So just keep that in mind, if you ever want to come to Hanoi.

So now I had my things and was legally allowed to go outside. My first priority was of course getting my phone to work, so I bought a prepayed card directly at the airport. (Apparently thats the best way to get one? I felt like I was falling straight into a tourist trap, but according to both the internet and my host ( a local) it’s legit.)

Connection with the world reestablished, I the focused on how to get to my rendezvous place, so my host could pick me up. Turns out random kiosks at the airport don’t only sell sim cards, but also hook you up with a taxi! What a time to be alive.

My taxi driver was lovely, as far as I can tell. We only exchanged like 10 senteces because of his limited English. and a majority of those were used to figure out where I actually needed to go, since none of the names my host had told me meant anything to me.

I did actually end up at the pick-up location! I’m actually kind of proud of that. Of course by then it had started to rain, so I went inside a coffee shop and waited there instead. Good thing I bought that sim card!

And my host did find me without problem to! I was not left to wander the streets alone.

Yay!