Friday 18th November 2022
Not a huge amount to write about today as we spent a fair bit of time travelling. We flew from Hanoi to Chiang Mai, and arrived at the airport 3 hrs before the flight. Partly because we may need to re-arrange our luggage (to fit within the meagre 7kg per person limit) and partly because we thought they may ask for proof of onward travel. Although we’ve booked some of the later stages of our trip (our flights to Australia and accommodation there) we’ve not booked anything departing Thailand as we’re not 100% sure how or when we’ll leave. We also need to collect our boarding pass from the airport (although we checked in online, according to AirAsia Hanoi airport doesn’t allow online boarding passes) so we factored in the additional queuing time / probability of being held up by either luggage weight, proof of onward travel, or both.
We’d pre-booked a taxi on Booking. Com (for a change it was cheaper than using Grab), which picked us up late morning. On the way we drove past the mosaic wall, which we’d been staying right next door to when we first arrived in Hanoi, but only found out about a couple of days ago. It’s beautiful and goes on for miles!
There was quite a long queue for the AirAsia desk (presumably because everyone had to get boarding passes printed). The couple in front of us got charged over $150 for their overweight luggage, which they were not at all happy about. I’d have just left something behind if that was me.
Eventually it was our turn. As Pete handed over passports etc, I surreptitiously put each of our bags on the scales (there are no scales for general use in the airport itself). Pete’s bag was 1kg overweight, so I moved some to mine and tried to fit the remaining few hundred grams in various pockets. It was all ok, and fortunately they didn’t ask for any proof of onward travel from Thailand.
We cleared security and immigration (they spent ages checking our passports and e-visa on our mobile phones, much more so than when we entered the country). I wasn’t at all impressed with Hanoi airport, all the prices were in USD and were ridiculously expensive (including Burger King where meals seemed to be $15-20!). We were planning on getting lunch there, but quickly changed our minds!
Our AirAsia flight departed and landed on time, and we arrived in Chiang Mai mid afternoon. We got a Grab car to our hotel, Canary House. It was great value for what we paid, large air conditioned room with a fridge and comfortable bed, and the hotel provided free tea, coffee, and biscuits.
We checked in, dropped off our bags, then walked into the old town for some food. We ate in Grazie Thai Local Food, and ordered chicken Khao Soi (a local Northern Thai dish of curry noodle soup topped with crispy noodles) and stir fried morning glory with pork. It was very good food. We loved the Khao Soi and the morning glory was very flavoursome with a nice chilli kick to it.
We went for a short walk, and then returned to our hotel for another episode of Manifest on Netflix as we were feeling quite tired.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 