Hanoi was our first introduction to Vietnam, and boy was it a hectic shock after the tranquility of Chiang Mai! Immediately upon getting picked up from the airport we realized this was not like other cities we had been to. The traffic is just insane! There was constant honking, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how people drive.
We also were amazed by the architecture. Because of the French influence there is a huge contrast between the architecture of the ground floor, which looks like a typical Asian city, and the rest of the building, which had ornate French designs and beautiful balconies covered in lush greenery. The buildings were also extraordinarily skinny. We learned that for centuries the buildings were taxed based on their width, so many people built thin but high!
We flew in the day before my parents arrived from Kaohsiung, Taiwan to meet us! On our first day, we explored the area around our hotel, Soleil Boutique, and then bought pho from a nearby restaurant for dinner. We took it to go so we could eat it on the roof of our building. It was like dinner and a show with the craziness of the intersection below us. Honking is the soundtrack of the city.
The next morning we walked around the Old Quarter, visiting Train Street and one of the many lakes of Hanoi. Crossing the road was a challenge in itself. I’ve truly never experienced traffic this chaotic. You really need to just shut down your internal fear response and step out into oncoming traffic, and trust that they will see you and go around you. Despite the insanity of the traffic, we did a 8 km walk around the big sites in the Old Quarter, such as Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, and Hanoi Imperial Citadel.
In the evening, we went to Bia Hoi, the lively bar street of Hanoi. The energy was so fun and exciting, and it was nice to see so many locals enjoying their evening, rather than drunk tourists being menaces.
We got home that night just in time to welcome my parents, Richard & Christy. We had a cheerful reunion before we went to bed.
We had booked a free walking tour of Hanoi city for the next morning, so we got up bright an early to meet our guide, Sang. He was so knowledgable about Vietnamese history & culture. He took us to many different spots in the Old Quarter, including the 2nd oldest coffee shop in Hanoi (where we tried egg coffee for the first time!), Hoan Kiem lake, and an ancient Vietnamese house.
Sang also took us onto the oldest train tracks in Vietnam, completed in 1903 & designed by the same man who designed the Eiffel Tower. At the end of the tour, we all had lunch together at a delicious local restaurant called Bún Chả Hương Liên, that Obama had eaten at when he visited.
That evening, we went back to Train Street with my parents. The road is blocked off to tourists unless you are ‘invited’ in by one of the coffee shop owners along the street. They are very particular about where you can be when you visit, but no one was very clear on the exact rules. There was a police officer nearby that would blow a whistle or yell at you if you stayed too long on the tracks citing the danger, but the next train wasn’t coming through for 4 more hours so it seemed a bit overkill.
We inadvertently discovered something great about Hanoi the next day – every weekend, from Friday afternoon to Sunday night, the government shuts down the road surrounding Hoan Kiem lake to any vehicles, and makes it a pedestrian only street! It was INCREDIBLE to finally have some peace and quite from the honking, and to be able to enjoy the beautiful lake without fearing for our lives. The area around the lake was absolutely packed with families with their kids, people hanging out in the park, and just enjoying the nice sunny day. We ended up doing 3-4 laps around the lake just because it was so peaceful to walk there. If you’re going to Hanoi, I highly recommend checking out the lake on the weekends.
One of the highlights of our Hanoi trip was a day trip that we organized to Ninh Binh. We wanted to get out of the city and explore more rural Vietnam, and Ninh Binh delivered! We visited beautiful temples, rode bikes through the rice paddies, and even got to go on a relaxing boat ride down the river. Ninh Binh is sometimes called “Dry HaLong Bay”, because the shape of the mountains is reminiscent of the iconic silhouette of the Ha Long Bay topography.
The next morning was our last in Hanoi, before we headed to Ha Long Bay. We throughly enjoyed our time here, but we were definitely ready to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and get to more peace and quiet. Of course, our peace and quiet had to wait a bit longer as our hired driver to Ha Long Bay not only was loudly chatting on speaker phone, but was the most aggressive honker, drifter, and tailgater of all time. What should’ve been a 2.5 hour drive was done in about 1.5 because of how crazily he was driving. But hey, at least we made it in one piece. Silver linings!