[Hanoi & Sapa #4] Landed 12:11, on the Sleeper Train at 10pm

10pm, our four-berth sleeper cabin. Four beds, two of them bunks.

Direct Answer & TL;DR

On September 29 we landed at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport at 12:11. The sleeper train to Sapa left at 10pm, so we had about nine hours to fill with two kids. Baggage took an hour and a half to come out. The BIDV ATM refused my Travlog UPI card, and an Agribank ATM paid out with no fee. I also learned, standing in front of the machine, that you insert the card first to get the screen to move on. (Travlog is a Hana Card travel debit card. UPI is the card network it runs on.) On October 17, on another trip, I tried the same BIDV ATM again and it paid out with no fee. Before the train we had an Old Quarter hotel for half a day: somewhere to leave the bags, escape the heat and wash up. Booking it was the best decision of the day.

Won figures use the Hana Money rate for the day (₩5.23 per 100 VND).

From Incheon to Noi Bai: 90 Minutes Waiting for Bags

We left home at 6am. During the weeks of planning, time flew. From about a week before departure, it strangely crawled. Hanoi and Sapa are both new to our family.

We checked in at Incheon Terminal 1, dropped our bags and rested at the Matina Lounge (an airport lounge at Incheon) with the kids, eating until boarding. Our Vietnam Airlines gate was 113. It’s Terminal 1, but you still have to take a shuttle train to get there.

Outside Gate 113.

VN417 left on time. Our seats were 18E, 18F, 19D and 19E. We hadn’t paid for seat selection, yet we got good seats near the front (the story is in #1). I suspect the airline looked out for us because of the kids. Our family has only flown Korean carriers so far, and this was our first foreign airline. My older kid seemed a little unsure about Vietnam Airlines instead of Korean Air.

Right after takeoff, peanuts came around. Wasabi flavor. The kids found them too spicy and couldn’t eat them. All the peanuts became mine.

After 4 hours 30 minutes in the air, we landed at Noi Bai International Airport at 12:11. Standing in the immigration line, I felt the heat right away. The day before departure I’d spent a long time fighting a visa date error on Vietnam’s pre-arrival declaration (PAI) (#2). At the immigration desk, nobody even asked to see the QR code. The line wasn’t long. I handed over passports and walked through.

The bags took a long time to come out. At 13:13, more than an hour after landing, our suitcases still weren’t on the belt. Other Korean travelers nearby were stamping their feet, sure their luggage was lost. My family just watched other people’s bags come down the belt.

I wasn’t worried. At Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, bags came out very late once too, so I knew these would be late.

“Take it easy. Wait an hour.”

Then I added something. Next time, maybe we should skip checked bags and travel with 20-inch carry-on suitcases only. Around 13:40, after an hour and a half, our suitcases finally showed up.

I’d looked into the Fast Track service for faster immigration but didn’t book it. Good call. Even if you finish immigration a few minutes early, with checked bags you end up waiting at the belt anyway. If you plan to use Fast Track, I think it only makes sense with a carry-on and nothing checked.

Noi Bai ATMs: BIDV Refused, Agribank Paid Out With No Fee

As soon as we had our bags, I went looking for an ATM. We hadn’t exchanged any Vietnamese dong in Korea. The plan was to withdraw cash locally. In my wallet was the Travlog UPI card I’d picked up at a Hana Bank branch the day before departure (#3, in Korean). According to Travlog’s announcement, the fee-free ATMs for the UPI card are BIDV and Agribank.

ATMs line up right outside arrivals. The red one is Agribank, the green one next to it BIDV.

I stood in front of a BIDV ATM and couldn’t tell where to press to start. The screen showed one button labeled QR. Pressing it just asked for a QR or a code. The ATM from another bank next to it did the same.

I’d assumed the Travlog card alone would do everything. Flustered, I stepped back from the machine. Meanwhile other foreigners were pulling cash from the same machine without a hitch. The kids beside me looked worried. The thought of not being able to get cash made everything go dark. Should have just exchanged money at a bank back home. Was I about to wreck the trip to save a few bucks on exchange fees?

Then I found out you have to insert the card first to move to the next screen. I pushed the UPI card back into the BIDV ATM. The screen changed and the language menu came up. Relief. But I chose cash withdrawal, got all the way to the last step, and a message popped up saying something like “this transaction is not available right now.” The other BIDV ATM did the same, and the same worry flooded back.

This time I went to an Agribank ATM, the other name on the fee-free list. Same method. At 13:43, 2 million VND came out with no fee. A minute later I withdrew 4 million VND more. Watching the bills come out, I was truly happy.

The second receipt. The fee line reads $0.00.

I don’t know why BIDV failed that day. Travlog’s announcement lists BIDV as a fee-free ATM. In my case, both BIDV machines at the airport failed and Agribank worked (the retry at the same BIDV is below). When I opened the Hana Money app, this is what left my account in won.

The ATM fee showed as $0.00 on the receipt, and the exchange fee showed as waived in the app.

Noi Bai ATM Withdrawal Steps (Travlog UPI, Agribank & BIDV)

1. Insert the Travlog card first (don’t press the QR button on the screen)
2. Pick a language: Korean or English
3. Anti-skimming notice: next
4. PIN (4 digits) + 00
5. Choose cash withdrawal
6. Choose the default account
7. Choose the amount

Step 4 is there because Vietnamese ATMs may ask for a 6-digit PIN. I added the 00 after my 4 digits and it worked, and Hana Card’s own Travlog guide also says to put 00 after the 4-digit PIN you registered. Some sources, like Wise’s guide, say to add it before, so if it fails, try the other order.

October 17: Back at the Same BIDV ATM

On October 17 I landed at Noi Bai again, this time on another trip. It was 11 days after I got home. I needed cash, so I headed for the ATMs. I wanted to see whether BIDV, which had refused me on day one, would work this time. Come out of baggage claim and the ATMs are right there on your right. I stood in front of the same BIDV machine from day one.

The steps were the same as that day. Card first, Korean from the language menu, then my 4-digit PIN with 00 after it. Same machine, same method, so I figured it would fail again.

Same machine, same card, same steps.

But it worked. At 11:34, 1,000,000 VND came out. Looking at the bills, my first thought was, “Huh? Why does it work this time?” On the receipt, the transaction fee and VAT lines both read 0 VND.

On the receipts I got, Agribank printed the fee in dollars and BIDV in dong.

With the machine and the steps the same, the one difference I can think of is how long I’d had the card. Maybe overseas withdrawals were blocked right after issue, but that’s only a guess. Hana Card’s Travlog guide lists the withdrawal limits (USD 1,000 per withdrawal, USD 6,000 per day, USD 10,000 per month) and the PIN rule, but it has no sentence saying overseas withdrawals are blocked right after issue. I found no such mention in Travlog’s announcement either. I didn’t ask customer service.

After two rounds at Noi Bai ATMs, it seems best to bring all three Travlog debit cards (Mastercard, Visa and UPI) to Vietnam and pull out whichever one fits the machine. The fee-free ATMs differ by brand. I wrote about getting the cards in #3, in Korean.

If you’ve been through the same thing, I’d love to hear about it.

Half a Day in the Old Quarter

I’d booked a car from the airport to the Old Quarter hotel in advance on Klook. The pickup notes said the driver would wait with a name board at pillar 18 in the Terminal 2 arrivals hall. Under pillar 18, the Klook WELCOME sign was the first thing I saw.

We checked in quickly and unpacked. This was a room we weren’t going to sleep in. With no time to catch our breath, we went out for a late lunch.

📍 Luxury Old Quarter Hotel & Gym · 67 Hang Bo Street, Old Quarter, Hanoi

45 minutes and 27.1 km by Google’s estimate. A rough route. (Map: Google Maps)

At a restaurant near the hotel we ate banh xeo, beef wrapped in la lot leaves, and pho. It felt a little pricier than local prices. When we finished, they asked us to leave a Google review.

Next was the cheesecake from Pung-hyang-go, a Korean YouTube travel show. Searching “풍향고 치즈케익” on Google Maps brought it right up, so it was easy to find. As the lid says, it’s a cake heaped with mozzarella cheese.

Phô mai tươi, fresh cheese.

📍 Pung-hyang-go Cheesecake (Ngọt dessert by Diệp) · 54 P. Phùng Hưng, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội

On Google Maps it’s listed as ‘Pung-hyang-go cheesecake’ (Korean). (Map: Google Maps)

I couldn’t find the cafe near it that appeared on the show, so we carried the cake to Cong Caphe by the railway tracks. I asked if we could eat the cake there. They said no problem at all. We ordered a coconut coffee, a yogurt drink and a mango smoothie. How did it taste? Maybe because we’d expected so much, it wasn’t an “eyes wide open” kind of good for our family.

As we came out of the cafe, the track was closed off because a train was about to pass. The train went by right in front of a dense crowd. It was amazing. Probably because of the crowd, the train seemed to move very slowly.

📍 Cong Caphe (Cộng Cà Phê) · 5 Trần Phú, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội 10000

On the way back from the tracks, my seven-year-old said it.

“Vietnam is scary.”

The motorbike horns were too loud, he said, and the streets were too crowded. He wanted to go back to Korea. We’d planned to walk around Hoan Kiem Lake too, but the hot, humid Hanoi air had drained the kids. We put Hoan Kiem off until later and went straight back to the hotel.

Under the air conditioning, everyone relaxed and everyone was happy. Sitting in that room, I thought that without this hotel, it would have been hard to get through the hours until the train with the kids at cafes or on the street. We could leave our bags, rest and wash. I was really glad we’d booked the room in advance. Hanoi was much hotter than I expected. If we come again, I’d stay a night here and take the sleeper train the next day.

Toward evening we got hungry and wanted something cold to drink, so we went to Banh Mi 25 nearby. It was very crowded, both in front of the stall and across the street.

I wanted to try menu items 1, 2 and 3, but number 2 was sold out, so we bought two each of 1 and 3. The ordering system was fun. You pay cash at the shop where you pick up your food, and they hand you a numbered ticket. You take it to the shop across the street and wait for your number to be called. The crust was crisp, the inside soft, with vegetables and meat in between. It was really good.

📍 Banh Mi 25 · 25 P. Hàng Cá, Phố cổ Hà Nội, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội 100000

Hang Ca Street, in the north of the Old Quarter. A few more shops on the same street. (Map: Google Maps)

At the convenience store Circle K, we bought cold cola, Hanoi beer and bottled water. Back at the hotel, I shared two banh mi with the kids. The other two we saved for the train.

10pm, SP3

At 20:42 we called a Grab to Hanoi Station.

SP3 on the board at the end of the overpass.

Our train was the Damitrans Express, SP3 from Hanoi to Lao Cai. Carriage 3, berth 11, a 4-berth cabin.

A lamp was lit in every window.

Room 4. Berths 11 to 14 are the beds for the four of us.

Stepping into the cabin, my younger kid said it wasn’t so much fun as astonishing.

“There are beds on a train! And bunk beds, too!”

We shared the two banh mi we’d saved with the kids, like in the evening. When the train started moving, I saw people standing on the tracks outside the window. I think we passed the very same track we’d watched from Cong Caphe in the afternoon.

🔗 References

• Travlog official blog (Naver, Korean) - fee-free ATMs for Vietnam — Fee-free ATMs by card brand as of August 31, 2026 (UPI: BIDV, Agribank; Mastercard: SCB, EXIM, OCB; Visa: SCB, EXIM, Viet Bank, AB Bank, VP Bank)
• Hana Card Travlog (Korean) — Debit card withdrawal limits USD 1,000 per withdrawal / 6,000 per day / 10,000 per month, overseas ATM PIN is 4 digits followed by 00, local ATM operator fees may apply. No mention of overseas withdrawals being limited right after issue
• Wise - ATMs in Vietnam — Vietnamese ATMs may ask for a 6-digit PIN, and adding 00 before your usual PIN usually works
• Flavors of Hanoi - Bánh Mì 25 — 25 Hang Ca, 7:00–21:00, two more shops on the same street, seating across the road
• Vietnam Railway - Damitrans Express — Damitrans SP3 leaves Hanoi at 22:00, arrives in Lao Cai at 06:05
• 4-Person Hanoi–Sapa 7N8D Booking Breakdown (#1)
• Vietnam Arrival Card (PAI) Visa Date Error: Set to the Day Before (#2)
• Travlog UPI & Visa Cards, Hana Bank Pickup (#3, Korean)