Hanoi

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and this is where we started the Vietnamese chapter of our trip. The city only just celebrated its 1000 years of existence.

What strikes one first is the chaos in the traffic. I wouldn’t call it a mess, just a fluid anarchy of cars and motorbikes peppered with honking and where traffic lights should be turned off to save the electricity since no one cares.

There are literally thousands of those street restaurants

Then the second aspect is the street food, they are everywhere, literally! There are about 7.5 million people living in greater Hanoi and I wouldn’t be surprised if the eateries numbered in their tens of thousands.

Mara slurping her pork and chicken Pho

The king dish is “Pho” which is a bowl of rice noodle, vegetables, a tasty broth and meat. We had quite a few of those! We were very inspired to book a food tour on our first evening in Hanoi to try out all the goodies. That was a great move.

Pork meat, rice noodles and greens!

Hanoi has a nice (chaotic) vibe to it. The old quarter reminded me a lot of Chinatowns in other cities while the old French Quarter comes straight out of a 1920’s decor.

Another thing that attracted my attention is the numerous “Made in Vietnam” stores that sells (counterfeit?) sports clothing. With all of the stuff that is made in Vietnam anyhow, I would challenge any “commoner” to tell the difference between fake and original.

Seen at the Museum of Ethnology - must be a Vietnamese thing

In any case we did our fair share of visits: Walking tour of the old quarter, St Joseph’s Cathedral, Vietnamese Women’s Museum, Museum of Ethnology, the Temple of Literature.

Our highlight though was the Hoa Lo prison. The French colonialists built it to hold revolutionaries. They executed some of them into the 1930’s using two guillotines!

The infamous guillotine used well into the 1930's

While we were they we were privileged enough to attend the launch of an exhibition on the Vietnam war. There were dozens of war veterans from the North Vietnam army as well as USAF fighter pilots who had been made prisoners and also prison guards from that time. The Americans had sarcastically named the Hoa Lo prison “Hanoi’s Hilton” a name that sticks to this day.

We also went to attractions such as a water puppet show where the girls also had a go at the puppets or the “train street” where a proper train goes through a narrow street while hundreds of tourists risk their lives for a picture or video. I was guilty of this too.

Moments before the 19h00 service to (Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) passes

Hanoi also has a trendy scene going for it with a lot of nice coffee shops and hip restaurants. We had one of those famous egg coffee in one of them. It is a whipped egg yolk with sugar poured over a strong hot coffee. It was ... interesting

Egg coffee

We also really enjoyed some quality craft beer at the Pasteur Street Brewery Co. i had a Pale ale while Roxana had a Hanoi IPA. Excellent beers.

Mara holds the Pale Ale and Lea the Hanoi IPA!

All in all we really enjoyed Hanoi and are grateful to have spent 2 extra nights here because of bad weather at our next stop. Now it’s time for a cruise in Halong Bay!


For more pictures of Hanoi