After taking my very first flight, I finally arrived in the first country of my backpacking journey: Vietnam.
To be honest, my first impression was that Vietnam wasn't too different from Indonesia. There weren't many things that immediately stood out. The biggest difference I noticed was that, unlike Indonesia where it's common to see women wearing hijabs, I barely saw anyone wearing one here. Of course, that makes sense since Muslims are a minority in Vietnam.
After landing at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, my group took a minibus to our accommodation. At first, we had already arrived at one house and even carried all of our luggage inside. But a few minutes later, we were suddenly told that we had to move to another house instead. So, we packed everything up again and headed to the new place, which wasn't exactly nearby.
When we finally got there, we found out that our room was on the fifth floor. Carrying heavy backpacks and suitcases up five flights of stairs was definitely not fun. By the time we reached the top, we were completely drenched in sweat.
Once everything was inside, we unpacked our bags, cleaned and organized the room, took showers, and decided to get some sleep. We were all exhausted after the long trip.
At around 4:00 PM, we woke up and went for a walk around the neighborhood. We were also looking for an ATM so we could withdraw some Vietnamese Dong. After walking for about twenty minutes, we finally found one. The process was actually easier than I expected. I just entered my phone number, confirmed the OTP code, selected the amount, and withdrew 500,000 Vietnamese Dong.
After that, we walked back to the accommodation. One thing that really caught my attention was how bright it still was at 6:00 PM. It honestly felt more like 4:00 PM. In Indonesia, it usually starts getting dark around 5:30 PM, so seeing daylight at that time was something I wasn't used to.
When we got back, I took another shower and washed my clothes. I feel like washing clothes regularly is one of the most important habits when you're backpacking. I really don't want to run out of clean clothes, so I've decided to wash them whenever I take a shower if I have the chance.
After that, we finally called it a day and got some rest, getting ready for whatever tomorrow had in store.