Camilia Hotel, Hanoi: A Review

Most of the tourists who come to Hanoi try and stay around the Hoan Kiem lake. While the hotels close to the lake have higher decibel levels, the ones slightly away from it have lower decibel levels. On my first stint in Hanoi, I stayed at the Hanoi City Hostel and when I returned to Hanoi, I stayed with them again for a day, but since they were sold out for the next day, they put me up at the Camilia Hotel, a couple of streets away. I got to stay here only for a night and this review is based on that short experience of mine.

1) The hotel is in a quiet neighborhood and hence the decibel levels are really low.

2) The hotel rooms are just average. It is not great or bad at the same time. The rooms are a bit damp.

3) The reception is very cheerful and always eager to help you out. But, if you book anything from them, then be ready to pay a premium.

4) The Hoan Kiem lake is a 10 minute walk away and so are the markets. The restaurants are much closer and all around.

5) The place has free wi-fi and offers laundry service.

This is a hotel that is good as a 2nd and 3rd option for budget travelers in Hanoi. May be, just about worth your money if you get a good deal.

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Nang Tam: A Great Vegetarian Restaurant in Hanoi

It has a Cinderella like story, but it is based in Vietnam. In this story, the king marries Cinderella, but some witch sends her out to the woods. She escapes and works in a remote village where her vegetarian dishes are a hit with the locals. The king, hearing about this famous eating joint, comes in disguise, finds his wife and takes her back to his kingdom. The girl’s name is Nang Tam and thus this restaurant, which believes in this fairy tale, has named it Nang Tam after the girl in the fairy tale.

The restaurant also believes that vegetarian cooking should be in such a way that it resembles meat so that meat eaters feel like they are they are getting their daily meat intake. Thus, the menu would have a lot of chicken, beef, pork, fish, squid and other meat names, but in reality they are all vegetarian and are made either from tofu or mushrooms. They are prepared in such a way that they exactly look and texture wise feel like meat.

If you are won Hanoi and need a local Vietnamese vegetarian option, I would recommend Nang Tam. They are located on Trang Hung Dao road in Hoan Kiem District and near the Hanoi train station. Like traditional Vietnam style, they have both set menu and alacarte. The typical set menu would include rice, lots of veggies and definitely lots of tofu and mushroom and a veggie soup that has a lot of lemon grass in it. You don’t get Vietnamese Green Tea (Tra Vietnam) with it, but I would definitely recommend you order that with your food.

I hope your vegetarian craves are met here while you are in Hanoi.

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Laos Visa from Hanoi, Vietnam

Getting a tourist visa to Laos from Hanoi in Vietnam is like the easiest thing in the world. I had read a lot of outdated and conflicting reviews and hence would like to add the current state of affairs for the assistance of the global traveler.

First, let me tell you my current state and plan. I am planning to enter Laos from the Sapa side and that means I enter Laos from Dien Bien Phu city at the Tay Trang international checkpoint. My hotel and the embassy recommended me to take my visa in advance if I enter from this checkpoint. If you are entering from the very popular Cau Treo international checkpoint, then you don’t need to apply for a visa in advance and can get it on arrival easily. It is supposed to be easy on some of the other checkpoints, though I have not collected any information on that front as it was not relevant to my travel plan.



I chose to get my visa done in advance to help me chose my port of entry at the last moment and prevent scams at the border. If you wish to apply for your Laos visa from Hanoi, you should go to the Laos embassy at 22, Tran Binh Trong and about 15 minutes walk from the old quarter of Hoan Kiem in Hanoi. Once you enter the small embassy, you will find the visa section, which is a very small room office. In this room, you will find out the visa costs for the various countries. The standard time for processing the visa is 3 days, 2 USD extra if you wish to get it done in 2 days and 5 USD extra if you wish to get it done on the same day.

In terms of documents, all you need is your passport (valid for 6 months with 2 empty pages) and 1 recent passport size colour photograph. The officer at the visa counter will give you the visa form, which you need to fill and sign. The visa form asks for port of entry, address in Laos and other information, but it is okay if you do not know it at the time of applying the visa.

I applied for the same day visa and was ready to pay USD 5 extra for that. Since I am from India, my visa fee is USD 40 for Laos. Once I gave my visa form, passport and photograph, I was told to wait for 15 minutes and that is how much time it took me to get my visa stamped on my passport. Payment needs to be made in US Dollars and not in Vietnamese Dong. The visa is valid for a duration of 2 months from date of stamping and is valid for a period of 30 days from day of entry. The embassy is open only on Mon-Fri 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM and 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM. Make sure you head there in the morning half if you wish to apply for your visa on the same day.

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Hanoi City Hostel: Good budget option in the old quarter

When traveling to Hanoi, most tourists prefer to stay in the old quarter as that is where most of the tourist attractions are and it is close to the night markets and the tourist infrastructure, like booking agencies, bus and train stations. I too followed the same trail and ended up at the old quarter where I stayed at a place called the Hanoi city Hostel that is located right in the middle of the hustling and bustling old quarter. Below review is based on my recent experience of staying with them.

1) The best attribute about this hostel is its helpful reception. They are very welcoming, speak good English and ensure they can help you wherever possible.

2) The place is not expensive, nor is it cheap. It is mid range when compared to the other hotels around. For USD 16, they include breakfast (simple baguette and eggs with coffee/tea) and offer you an air-conditioned room with twin beds, hot shower and attached bathroom.

3) The other good attribute about this hotel is its location. It is close to the night markets, the tourist attractions, the good restaurants, the banks, the tourist agencies and the shopping district. All of them are a short walk away. If you want to take some rest, you can hire a cyclo.

4) The place has high speed wi-fi that is free and has a router for each floor. They have desktops and a printer to help you with your browsing and printing needs.

5) The rooms are fairly large with good air circulation, but their bathrooms can be bigger. It can be cramped for tall people, but thankfully, the rooms are spacious.

6) If you stay on the lower floors, you are bound to hear traffic noise in your room. If this affects you, take the rooms in the higher floors.

7) If you stay on the higher floors, you will get some good city views, apart from getting good breeze.

Personally, I liked this place for their customer service. I am going to stay with them when I return to Hanoi shortly. It is good for a budget traveler with basic, but important needs.

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Travel Photo: Vietnamese Chess

As a traveler, there are those special moments that always catch your eye and egg you to notice it at close quarters. This was one such moment too where a couple of elderly gentlemen were playing a local game and some locals were watching them. As I am very inquisitive by nature, I was automatically tempted to go watch the game to understand what it was and how it was being played.


The location of this scene was at the banks of the Hoan Kiem lake at Hanoi in North Vietnam and under a lovely big tree. As I started watching this game, I figured out that it was very similar to chess and since I liked playing the game of chess, it piqued up my interest even more. And it looked even better as the two elderly gentlemen were playing it with a lot of thought and competition.


This game is played in a slightly different way when compared to traditional chess. As far as I understood, the players like rook, knight, queen, bishop, pawn, etc. moved like the normal game of chess, but the board in itself was different and apart from straight lines it had diagonal lines too. This signaled the way the players could move their coins. Unfortunately for me, I could not watch the entire game as I had a flight to catch, but I am planning on finding more about this game when I return to North Vietnam in a couple of weeks.

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