This is answering a question than asking one, due I am clearing out my personal website but wanted this info to go somewhere that you would see and be able to use it.
The question, DO YOU HAVE ANY INFO YOU WISH YOU KNEW WHEN YOU GOT HERE?
The answer(s) is/are below:
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Mind blowing pampering; Facial and pedicure >>>>>>>>>>> Pa
11 Pho Heu, Tel 84-4-822-5055
The service is amazingly gentle and you are seriously treated like the goddess that you are. I went twice for an insanely long facial (due the pollution in Hanoi, I tried like mad to make this a habit). I believe the facial was 90 minutes and included various gooey things on the face, an amazing head massage/shoulder rub and nice nice facial lotions at the end of the facial. $22!!! So baby soft skin after. I also got pedicures there that were the same price as everywhere else in town, about $3. The 2nd time I asked for the pedicure to be done at the same time as the facial and I was getting worked on by two employees at the same time. There aint nuttin like a head and foot rub at the same time. HEAVEN!!! They also (hesitantly) take credit cards.
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Fantastic BBQ Restaurant >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Bo Tung Xeo
(near Kim Ma)
64 Dao Tan (the D is the one with the slash through it)
This place ROCKS. It looks like a local joint, has super yummy food, and is NOT expensive at all.
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Foot massages >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Phieu Bao Massage
There are almost as many foot massages places in Hanoi as there are Xeoms. And although the service and prices are same-same, they are different. The below place I ran across accidentally and was pleasantly surprised. Gentle but firm and a great price. 90,000 VND for 1 hour foot massage (5 USD)
34 Phan Chu Trinh (if I remember correctly, this is off of Pho Hue)
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Random Cool Cultural Moment >>>>>>>>>>> Museum of Ethnology
The information and displays inside the museum are interesting enough. BUT the traditional houses OUTSIDE the museum ROCK! You can even have a picnic or just kick it in the ultra serene long house out there. So wish I went back more than once.
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Creepy Interesting Tourist Moment >>>>> Hoa Lo Prison (aka, the "Hanoi Hilton")
It's too bad they tore down part of this historical landmark to build Hanoi Towers (as much as Citimart was my saving grace sometimes), but there is still enough to see and read about to make this an interesting trip. Yes, the written info is in English also, but beware, it IS written with a very specific political viewpoint (no, really?) Also, its hot as hell in there, so go on a cool day if you can. (hahahahaha, a cool day, does that exist in Hanoi?)
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Non-Blockbuster MOVIES >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hanoi Cinematheque
I was lucky enough to see many local documentaries, Vietnamese films, obscure French films and more at this quaint little place. This is one place I debated NOT telling you about, cause it is such a fantastic hideaway that if too many folks start going....(you get the idea). But then I remembered all 3 of you that read this, and figured the coast was clear.
warning; they DONT have a website, so either email them here:
info@hanoicinema.org
or stop by to check out their schedule. (I never found their email service to be good at all, so stopping by is HIGHLY recommended).
And if you hate movies, its still a good idea to grab a drink in their cute (and quiet) courtyard.
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Best Medical Advice in the world >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Acupunturist
Email me for details. I can not recommend her services enough. Nope. Magic baby, magic!!!
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How to use your cell phone in Vietnam >>>>>>>>>>>>>> SIM card madness
Assuming that your cell phone is tri-band or quad-band and is unlocked (best to do before you leave your home country), all you need to do is buy a sim card and possibly some phone credit and you are ready to go. When I bought my SIM card in Hanoi it was something like $3 US and it came with a lot of credit, making it nearly FREE to start service. Sure wish there was something like that here in San Francisco!
Warning; Phone calls are expensive, but text messages are free. There were 2-3 diff cell phone service providers when I was there, Mobi and .....oops, cant remember. But what I do remember is that there wasnt a big diff in service between them.
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Teethy yum >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Dentist
I went once, and the receptionist spoke decent English, there was no waiting and it was all terribly professional.
travelgoddess posted about 17 months ago to Etiquette. Viewed 74 times. Answered 7 times.
I just found out we are moving to Hanoi and your answer to the question, "DO YOU HAVE ANY INFO YOU WISH YOU KNEW WHEN YOU GOT HERE?", made me feel a whole lot better about living in Hanoi. Thanks!
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Aw, thanks.
This was written quite some time ago, and things are a-changing rapidly in Hanoi, so feel free to drop me a message if you have any specific questions.
Steph
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I hate to rain on the parade and all, but this is exactly what leads to information getting lost. Each of these should have been a review. Those not yet listed can be listed with the "Add a Spot to the Directory" link you see in the footer.
This whole site is basically "Too Much Information On Hanoi", so its important that it gets entered in a structured way if it's going to be of much use going forward.
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agree with alpha, it would get really messy to do it this way. And since this entire site is devoted to Hanoi, why would you condense so much information on one page only. it makes it only harder to index that info.
If spots and questions are entered properly while using tags, it becomes fairly simple to find info on the site using the search bar.
example: the last part of your "question" talks about "dentist", but yet there is only "health" as a tag. If you want to find information about dentist on a site or the web for that matter, would you search with "dentist" or "health" as a keyword?
just trying to help ;) and make sure TNH stays the best resource of info on Hanoi as it is already.
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was just trying to help. you are more than welcome to delete the post,since its so "messy." I dont spend that much time online and was not able to post each bit of info as a separate post, if thats what y'all are suggesting. Ugh, really?
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That is how the site is set up to run.
Anyone can enter any business (the little button at the bottom that says "Add a Spot to the Directory" gets it done). Once entered, reviewing it positively or negatively means that future information seekers don't have to wade through hundreds of un-indexed bits of advice. There have been more than three thousand reviews now on the site. Can you imagine what it would be like if you had to weed through all of them to find out people's take on a single place? For some things, there's really no simple way to provide a structured, aggregating entry method, but people still want to know. Thus: Ask A.N.H. For other things, you're contributing far more by entering it properly. In your post, only the bits of advice about the phone usage don't have a clear place to be put. But even that probably has several other Ask A.N.H. threads about phones and sim cards that would have been a more useful home.
It's not that we're upset you're contributing to the site, it's just that we'd like to have those contributions continue to be contributing for you and others go forward. A post like this turns into a "data dump" that fades into the background pretty quickly (when people like us aren't constantly talking about it fading).
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Cell texts are not free at all. Normally it costs 300-500 vnd each depending on the provider and whether the receiver belongs to the same network or not. But there are often "big sale campaigns" such as get 100% of the total value of the first credit card for a working Sim or 162000 vnd of credit for a 48000 vnd Sim Card (vinafone - Sep). Cheapest way is to buy new sim cards just to call with the
big sale" credit.
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