On Monday, I bought the tickets on JetStar Pacific for the domestic flight. Yesterday, I got an email marked important saying that our flight would be delayed from its scheduled time. So, rather than going to the airport around 10:00 am we were able to hang around the 'backpacker area' for lunch. It was an easy flight but we didn't get to Hanoi until after six in the evening and it was dark. We neglected to by a $2 ticket on JetStar bus to downtown. Yet we did buy them right from the curbside. It was over 45 minutes to downtown Hanoi.
A much too friendly taxi driver grabbed us. He was a scam as his meter was rigged. We had asked at a large hotel, near the location where the bus stopped, how much a taxi should cost to our hotel area. We knew it should be around $2 for the six minute ride; not over $20. We refused to pay and as he had no picture and license in the cab, we knew we were right. We paid him the standard fare which he had to accept. Welcome to Northern Vietnam!
Our hotel is quite fancy for $21 a night. We are on the 7th floor at the Rising Dragon Estate. We are in the Old Quarter and near the Hogan Kiem Lake and not for from the Historic French district.