I can't sleep well, have to think of a possible mistake in the booking I made. Will I make it to the airport on time? The rooster appears once again, walks around me but doesn't say anything. I realise that this is not a good sign. The rooster is a troublemaker and I must definitely have made a mistake when booking the VIP minivan from Ninh Binh to Hanoi Airport.
The rooster walks up and down and around me shaking his head in a way I don't like.
"What is it?" I ask.
"You're a bloody idiot!" he says.
"Why?"
"Why should I tell you? You wanted to kill me the other day."
"Oh, come on! What did I do wrong?"
"You're such an idiot! Besides, I am a rooster and roosters don't talk. You are imagining all this. Goodbye!"
And off he is.
I try to sleep, but I can't, so I get up around 7am, have a shower and go downstairs for breakfast. The owner asks me where I am going next and I tell him that I am flying to Hue. He asks how I will get to the airport and I tell him that I have booked a minivan and that I will be picked up at 10am. He says that I should have asked him, because they offer shuttle service to the airport and the price is the same. Damn! I really should have asked him! There was a mention somewhere, that the hotel offers shuttle services.
I go up to my room to pack my suitcase and return to the lobby at 9.55am. The owner, his wife, one of his employees and one of his friends are outside having tea. Time passes but there is no driver to pick me up. I am supposed to be picked up by a car which will take me to the headquarters of the company. There I will get onto the minivan to Hanoi and in Hanoi I will possibly be picked up by another car and be driven to the airport directly.
As time passes, I get a bit nervous. I ask the owner to give the company a call. He is told that the driver is on his way. Another 5 minutes pass and I send the company an email. The owner calls them again in the meantime. I get no answer to my mail, but the owner is told that the driver should be here within minutes.
As I look around me, I see the sign of the hotel, which says 'Friendly Home' and this is when I realise my mistake in the booking. I put down 'Friendly Hotel' instead. I wrote Ninh Binh as the city, but when it came to choose the province, a different one popped up as an option. I go to the confirmation email to see the name of that province and fire up the maps app to see where it is. It is .... in the very south of Vietnam. Damn! That's thousands of miles away!
I tell this to the owner and he calls the company again to clarify things. Two minutes later a small car stops at the end of the alley, I take my suitcase in a hurry and run towards it, while thanking the owner and saying goodbye. Lesson learnt! Always ask the landlord for advice before booking anything.
I get into the car and the driver floors it immediately. It's already too late. The minivan must have left the headquarters by now. I have no idea where we're driving to, the driver doesn't speak any English, so communication is not possible. As he seems quite nervous, I don't dare ask anything. He drives like a maniac through Ninh Binh, holds his mobile phone with his left hand on his ear and is in continuous communication with somebody, while he steers through traffic with his other hand honking his way through. It all seems like a Playstation game and I quite like it. I start to laugh at some point, when a few pedestrians jump out of the way, but the driver is not amused.
I do notice that he is not driving to the headquarters, but is driving out of town. A few minutes later, I spot a parked minivan in the far distance and realise what has happened. While the driver was on his way to the 'Friendly Home' and not to the 'Friendly Hotel' (oops!), the minivan departed on time and stopped in the middle of nowhere to wait for us.
The driver hits hard on the brakes and we stop just behind the minivan. I jump out of the car, take my stuff and get onto the minivan. And off we go!
It is a slightly different van this time, but as flashy as the last one.
The rooster walks up and down and around me shaking his head in a way I don't like.
"What is it?" I ask.
"You're a bloody idiot!" he says.
"Why?"
"Why should I tell you? You wanted to kill me the other day."
"Oh, come on! What did I do wrong?"
"You're such an idiot! Besides, I am a rooster and roosters don't talk. You are imagining all this. Goodbye!"
And off he is.
I try to sleep, but I can't, so I get up around 7am, have a shower and go downstairs for breakfast. The owner asks me where I am going next and I tell him that I am flying to Hue. He asks how I will get to the airport and I tell him that I have booked a minivan and that I will be picked up at 10am. He says that I should have asked him, because they offer shuttle service to the airport and the price is the same. Damn! I really should have asked him! There was a mention somewhere, that the hotel offers shuttle services.
I go up to my room to pack my suitcase and return to the lobby at 9.55am. The owner, his wife, one of his employees and one of his friends are outside having tea. Time passes but there is no driver to pick me up. I am supposed to be picked up by a car which will take me to the headquarters of the company. There I will get onto the minivan to Hanoi and in Hanoi I will possibly be picked up by another car and be driven to the airport directly.
As time passes, I get a bit nervous. I ask the owner to give the company a call. He is told that the driver is on his way. Another 5 minutes pass and I send the company an email. The owner calls them again in the meantime. I get no answer to my mail, but the owner is told that the driver should be here within minutes.
As I look around me, I see the sign of the hotel, which says 'Friendly Home' and this is when I realise my mistake in the booking. I put down 'Friendly Hotel' instead. I wrote Ninh Binh as the city, but when it came to choose the province, a different one popped up as an option. I go to the confirmation email to see the name of that province and fire up the maps app to see where it is. It is .... in the very south of Vietnam. Damn! That's thousands of miles away!
I tell this to the owner and he calls the company again to clarify things. Two minutes later a small car stops at the end of the alley, I take my suitcase in a hurry and run towards it, while thanking the owner and saying goodbye. Lesson learnt! Always ask the landlord for advice before booking anything.
I get into the car and the driver floors it immediately. It's already too late. The minivan must have left the headquarters by now. I have no idea where we're driving to, the driver doesn't speak any English, so communication is not possible. As he seems quite nervous, I don't dare ask anything. He drives like a maniac through Ninh Binh, holds his mobile phone with his left hand on his ear and is in continuous communication with somebody, while he steers through traffic with his other hand honking his way through. It all seems like a Playstation game and I quite like it. I start to laugh at some point, when a few pedestrians jump out of the way, but the driver is not amused.
I do notice that he is not driving to the headquarters, but is driving out of town. A few minutes later, I spot a parked minivan in the far distance and realise what has happened. While the driver was on his way to the 'Friendly Home' and not to the 'Friendly Hotel' (oops!), the minivan departed on time and stopped in the middle of nowhere to wait for us.
The driver hits hard on the brakes and we stop just behind the minivan. I jump out of the car, take my stuff and get onto the minivan. And off we go!
It is a slightly different van this time, but as flashy as the last one.
As you can see in the rearview mirror, the driver is on his phone. All the way to Hanoi, he either talks to somebody on the phone or to the guy next to him. I ask for the WIFI password and work for a bit, but as the ride is too bumpy, I give up. I put on my headphones and listen to music while I look outside. It doesn't take long to reach Hanoi and some people get off. Then we drive a little further and some others get off. I ask if I have to get off, too, but the driver says that he will drive me to the airport. Fantastic!
Another 20 minutes later and we arrive at the airport. He stops outside Terminal 3, helps me with my luggage and I walk into the building. I check in, pass the controls and ask for the lounges at a reception desk. I am told that they are upstairs. When I get upstairs, I see two lounges with funny names. There's no Star Alliance and no Sky Team lounge. Damn! I search online to see if there are any and where they are and find out that both are at Terminal 1. I look around and discover a Burger King, so I go there for lunch and occupy one of the tables to work a little and write a five-star-review for the 'Friendly Home'. When it is time to board, I go downstairs and walk towards the gate. I see on one of the screens that it says 'gate closed', but the gate hasn't opened yet. A few minutes later it says 'final call', but it still hasn't opened yet. Some more minutes later a voice announces that the flight will be delayed. Great! I am messaging with my friend Sonja in the meantime, who is now in Ho Chi Minh City, a place I am going to in a few weeks.
The gate opens after an hour or so and we finally board. The plane isn't fully booked and the short flight passes pleasantly. Besides me, there are very few westerners on board.
It's later in the afternoon when I arrive in Hue. I want to take a Grab (Vietnamese Uber), but not cars are available, only motorcycles, so I take a taxi instead. I show the hotel name and the address to the driver, but he doesn't seem to be 100% sure. So, I put it on Apple maps and hand him my phone.
A quarter of an hour later he stops somewhere and points at a building behind us. I think he means that this is my hotel. I pay, take my suitcase and walk towards that building, only to discover that it is not my hotel. As I look around, I see a small road next to the building the driver pointed at and a bunch of signs on the wall. He must have pointed at the signs and not at the hotel! I check the signs, but Nino Hotel is not advertised. A man approaches me and asks if I need help. I ask if he knows the Nino Hotel and indeed he does. He tells me to walk into this street and take the first to the left, it will be on my right hand side. This I do, and indeed I find it.
I see many shoes, sandals and flip flops on the steps in front of the entrance and wonder why. It reminds me on the various mosques I have been to in the Arab world. I lift my suitcase and walk through the open door to the lobby. There I notice that everybody is barefoot. Ah, that's why the shoes are outside. I am asked to take a seat at one of the tables and wait a little. A few minutes later, the receptionist, a young lady comes and takes the seat opposite me. I ask her about the shoes and she says that the policy of the house is to walk barefoot. I ask if I can take them onto my room and she says yes. Thank God for that! My ONs are bloody expensive.
She asks me where I came from today, how long I have been in Vietnam, how long I am planning to stay, what places I have been and where I am going next and how long I want to stay in Hue and what I want to see here. I ask about the DMZ (demilitarised zone) and she says that they work with an agency that organises trips to the DMZ. She asks which day I want to go and takes the phone to book it for me. So, tomorrow I am going to a hell of a trip.
She asks me how I am planning on going to Hoi An and Da Nang after Hue. I tell her either by train or by minibus. She suggests that I go to Hoi An first and then to Da Nang and even suggests how many days I need to stay in each place. Sounds reasonable what she says and I had something similar in mind. She then tells me that the hotel works with an agency that organises bus rides to Hoi An and does some stops on the way and that it is a better option if I want to see something. Sounds good, I say, and I pay for both trips, DMZ and Hoi An. I take my shoes off while she calls a man to help carry my suitcase to the top floor.
And this is my room:
Nice!
I unpack a few things and decide to go for a walk and have something to eat. It's dinner time. I ask the receptionist for a recommendation and she sends me to a place around the corner.
I walk a bit around the area in the evening and then go back to my room, fill the bath tub, lie in for a while, enjoy the moment and go to sleep.
Tomorrow will be a hell of a day.
Good night everyone!
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