Above: Dedicated queues for men, women and families at the supermarket.
It was an early start with a 0545 wake up. The hotel kindly offered us breakfast before their normal serving time and despite us having eaten our entitlement yesterday. We can certainly recommend the Hanoi Holiday Diamond Hotel; the staff are amazing. They bend over backwards to offer help rather than wait to be asked. It was the perfect combination of hospitality, training, eagerness and taking pride in their job.
On the way to the airport, we crossed a high bridge. There was a bit of build up of traffic. The cops were on the roadside and I saw a dead man naked from the waist down. There was no apparent sign of a smash up. Quite disturbing and rather mysterious.
Check-in was looked slow (but wasn’t too bad) with two AirAsia flights departing Hanoi within 5 minutes of each other. Online check-in seems to too popular now and the queue was as long as the normal one.
Leaving Vietnam, I feel that it is a great place to visit:
- It is cheap even if one gets ripped off.
- Quality of budget accommodation is good and there are plenty of them.
- Service in budget hotels is better than in some 5-star places, especially in Hanoi.
- In general, Vietnamese businesses know how to read their market well and deliver.
Our flight departed 15 minutes early and got to KL early. Our 4h transit passed quickly at the Plaza Premium lounge before we dropped our baggage off for our flight to Kota Bharu. We landed early into Kota Bharu and took an expensive taxi to the Tune Hotel. Airport taxis are often a rip-off with some drivers asking extortionate prices. The voucher system in place at Malaysian airports curbs the odd case extortionate pricing but makes everyone pay a semi-extortionate price.
We were pleasantly surprised by the Tune Hotel at Kota Bharu as the rooms were more spacious than at other branches. And they don’t (or no longer) take deposits for the room key and towel. Checkout had also been extended from 1000 till 1100.
Kota Bharu and Kelantan are very Malay areas compared to the rest of Malaysia. It is referred to sometimes as the Green Belt as green is the colour of Islam. It is kinda known as the state where there are dedicated queues for men, women and families at the supermarket.
We thought we’d go to the Ramadhan markets after a rest. Wrong! The markets were gone; they run from mid-afternoon till early evening for people to buy their goodies, then close up when most people go home to break their fast. Trading hours at eateries (even KFC and McDonald’s) are severely modified as the population is largely Muslim, opening from 1500-2230. No breakfast McMuffins for anyone this month!