Day 66 - From Tam Coc to Hanoi – Smog, Sick Bags & Beef Katsu Don

Travel day out of Tam Coc.

Everyone woke up feeling noticeably better, which was a huge relief. Maddie was back to 100 percent. Emmett still had a bit of a cough but his energy was clearly back. Kia was getting there too, still a cough and a mild headache, which could just as easily have been from not eating much, being sick for days, and living off bottled water. Overall though, we were finally turning a corner.

We headed down for breakfast and went with pancakes, mostly because it was the only thing everyone felt like eating. Crepe-style pancakes with honey, coffees and juices. Other than me, everyone only managed about half. The juices still aren’t really getting touched at the moment. Kia didn’t enjoy the black coffee, mine was fine, but it was very much a “fuel only” breakfast rather than an enjoyable one.

After that it was straight into packing mode. We needed to be out of the room by 11. Around 10, Kia had organised a call with her mum, so she and the kids had a good long chat with Nanny K while I finished off last-minute packing, sorting, blogging, and tying up loose ends.

Once the call wrapped up, we got all our bags downstairs and went to settle the bill. We knew we didn’t quite have enough in our Wise account, so we paid what we could with that and planned to cover the rest in cash. Turns out we were still a bit short. The lady was happy for us to take the bikes into town to grab more cash and some lunch, which worked out well.

We tried to go back to the place we’d had dinner the night before, but it was closed, which was disappointing for the kids. Instead, we found a banh mi place that also did noodles. Kia and the kids went with vermicelli noodles, I grabbed a banh mi and a coconut coffee, and it ended up being the perfect farewell meal. Honestly, I wish we’d found that place earlier. It had exactly the kind of food everyone had been craving while they were sick.

After that, we rode back, paid the remaining balance, loaded up the car, and hit the road for Hanoi. About a two-hour drive.

Almost immediately, the air quality was noticeably bad. Very smoggy, thick pollution hanging in the air. Northern Vietnam, especially around Hanoi, often gets heavy smog in winter due to a mix of factors: vehicle emissions, industrial pollution, coal-fired power plants, and agricultural burning, all combined with cooler temperatures that trap dirty air closer to the ground. The result is a grey haze that reduces visibility and sits in your head and chest. Visibility would’ve been lucky to stretch a kilometre. You couldn’t see anything in the distance, just the flat rice fields immediately beside the road.

The drive itself was calm and uneventful. Emmett was pretty disappointed when his tablet ran out of battery about an hour in, so I handed over my phone so he could play some games. Mostly it was just long stretches of the same countryside rolling by.

As we got closer to Hanoi, traffic started building quickly. Stop-start, congested, horns everywhere. About five to ten minutes from the hotel, Maddie said she was going to be sick. She always struggles with car sickness when traffic crawls like that. She managed a decent vomit into a plastic bag, which we were very thankful to have. After that, the driver’s urgency definitely increased. Lots of horn tooting, a bit more aggression, and we were at the hotel pretty quickly.

Once there, we realised another small but frustrating oversight. Our next accommodation required cash up front, which we hadn’t realised earlier when we’d withdrawn money. That meant another dash to find an ATM, more fees, and navigating a busy road crossing. Not ideal, but it got done. Kia and the kids headed up to the room while I sorted the cash, then came back down so we could hand everything over.

The accommodation itself is great. Clean, spacious, two bedrooms, two bathrooms. The kids have their own room, Kia and I have ours, and there’s plenty of space to spread out and organise ourselves before the big flight to Austria. We’re also right on top of a shopping centre, which Kia is very keen to explore.

After paying for the room, we were left with about 800,000 dong, not much at all. Because it wasn’t a banking day, we couldn’t instantly transfer more money into Wise, so dinner had to come out of that remaining cash. Thankfully, downstairs in the shopping centre we found a place doing beef katsu don with Japanese curry. Absolutely delicious. We all got the same thing. The kids had leftovers, took them back upstairs, and ended up eating more later. Full bellies all round, which felt like a win after the past few days.

Back in the room, the kids were stoked to discover a TV. It’s the first time we’ve had one in ages. They ended up watching adventure travel on YouTube, guys building cabins in the wilderness and that sort of thing, which was actually pretty cool. Kia and I used the time to talk through a few things, plan ahead, and sort out what needs to happen over the next couple of days.

A big, full-on travel day, but an important one. We’re now settled, everyone’s improving health-wise, and we’re in the final stretch before the flight to Austria. Let’s see what Day 67 brings in Hanoi.