Exploring Hanoi

 Hanoi

Hanoi jam

So we left Ninh Binh to make our way back to Hanoi, staying in Phu Ly again for one night en route. Phu Ly is a nice, non touristy, town and we decided to venture out to find somewhere to eat (having been a little underwhelmed with the dinner we'd had in the hotel on our earlier stay). One challenge with staying in non tourist towns like this is that it can be trickier to establish the best eateries. We've tended to rely on Google but it's fair to say that, at times, some of the reviews have misled us a little. Anyway we decided to try a small local restaurant that seemed highly rated. On arrival we were warmly greeted by a lovely Vietnamese lady - she didn't speak any English but with the help of Google translate we quickly established there were only 2 things on the menu and one of them wasn't available - which certainly made ordering pretty straightforward 😂. We weren't entirely sure what we were getting (Google translate isn't perfect and the pictures on the menu were a bit hazy) but when it arrived it was quite a mixture of sorts. A lump of cold rice noodles, some rather bland pieces of tofu, some pieces of pork belly and some fried dumplings. None of it was particularly tasty but we did our best - not wanting to disappoint our host who seemed so pleased to see us! Max did a much better job of this than me though and I ended up getting a tasty banh mi from a street vendor on the way back to the hotel to fill the gap 👍

A rather unappetising platter

Phu Ly town at night

The next morning we set off after breakfast bracing ourselves for the centre of Hanoi. We cycled back along the main road most of the way - it was very busy and extremely noisy but at least it wasn't raining (although it was still pretty chilly)! We weren't under any time pressure and it wasn't a particularly long ride so we took a fairly leisurely pace and stopped at a nice little cafe on the outskirts of Hanoi for some Pho soup 🍲 which again warmed us up just when we needed it 👍

On reaching the centre of Hanoi the traffic was crazy and our experience cycling through the city was much the same as the last time. Scooters everywhere, junctions a complete free for all, narrow lanes with two way traffic, you name it we saw it! There were a couple of hairy moments - where we suddenly needed to turn left on a 4 lane motorway and being on the hard shoulder/far right hand bicycle lane meant we had to then navigate across the four lanes of jostling traffic in order to do this! I've come to recognise the moment when Max registers what the sat nav is telling him and as he looks over his shoulder I know exactly what he's going to say next - it's my job to signal our intention to the traffic behind, so no pressure then!! On another occasion we missed the turning and then had a very tricky time trying to "turn round" amidst the chaos 🫣. Max did brilliantly though - he's totally unflappable - and overall it seemed a tad easier than the first time we'd navigated Hanoi. 

We arrived at the Hotel du Lac which sits in the Old Quarter area of Hanoi and overlooks a beautiful cathedral (apparently the oldest in Hanoi) similar in style to Notre Dame. The hotel itself was beautiful if a little smaller than we'd expected. I think that's typical in Hanoi though as space is such a premium. That said there was a grand piano in the downstairs lobby! It did seem very luxurious and I was a bit worried we were slightly scruffy and dishevelled for the hotel's image. Nonetheless all the staff were so welcoming and helpful throughout our stay and if they thought it at any point they certainly didn't let it show. 

Traffic in Hanoi

St Joseph's Cathedral

We quickly settled into our very luxurious room and then went out for a wander to explore and find something to eat. We managed to find a nice pizzeria that did a good gluten free pizza for Max. If anything his pizza was actually nicer than mine - that's a first 😳. There's a beautiful lake in the centre of Hanoi, called Hoan Kiem Lake, again near where we were staying. There's an ornate bridge stretching out across the lake which leads to a beautiful temple sitting in the centre. The whole area around the lake is a lovely oasis of calm and surrounded by pretty gardens (we saw dozens of lady gardeners hard at work just as we had done at the park in Ninh Binh). We walked around the lake just taking in the sights and generally people watching.  Locals out jogging, street vendors and tourists all converge and, it's a complete cocktail of old and new worlds.  

One of the things I'd identified for us to do while we were in Hanoi was go to a water puppet show at one of the theatres situated on the edge of the lake. It's a very old Vietnamese tradition which uses brightly coloured puppets in scenes which recreate life in Vietnam's northern villages - fishing, rice planting and royal parades. I'd bought tickets online in advance and although we weren't going until the next day we popped in while passing that afternoon just to pick our tickets up. As it turned out this was a very wise move as when we turned up the next day there was a huge queue which we thankfully avoided and walked straight in. The show itself was brilliant - very colourful and engaging and at 50 mins just about the right length. We decided not to get the audio guide translation which didn't seem to impact our enjoyment and we came away feeling we'd understood enough of what each scene was about without needing it. 

We'd booked to go on a street food tour the following afternoon and turned up to meet Jessica, our guide, at about 1.30pm. The first thing she gave us to try were shot glasses of Vietnamese rice wine - it's 40% proof so nothing like what we think of as wine and the tradition is to down it in one which we then immediately repeated to sample a different flavour. So we were off to a good start - definitely my kind of tour I thought 👍

It turned out we were the only ones on the tour that day - just like the one we did in Phnom Penh at the start of our trip - which meant we had Jessica's undivided attention. The tour lasted about 3.5 hours and she took us to some fabulous little cafes and street food stalls we'd never otherwise have found to sample a variety of traditional Vietnamese dishes. All the food was fabulous - a traditional pho style soup with pork was a particular favourite of mine while Max really liked the sesame seed mini donuts. The real highlight though was chatting to Jessica about life in Vietnam. She was really engaging and very open and honest too. Her English was excellent and we had alot of fun - she was as interested in finding out about us and life in the UK as we were about her and Vietnam. The tour finished at one of the most famous landmarks in Hanoi - the train street in the Old Quarter. It's a narrow alley lined with bars and cafes and beautifully decorated with lanterns and lights. We sat and enjoyed a vietnamese egg coffee while waiting for a train to pass by. It's an active track without any barriers so when the train passes by it's literally inches from you and very loud indeed! It was certainly a grand finale to a great tour and we parted company with Jessica on a real high 😀

Since arriving in Vietnam we've noticed how everyone is gearing up for Tět - the Lunar New Year. As we wandered round the streets and markets of Hanoi over the next few days this seemed to intensify. The markets were full of the most colourful displays including beautifully wrapped hampers which people gift to one another. There were also lots of colourful cardboard packages everywhere and Jessica had explained that they burn these as part of an offering to their dead relatives so that they will in return bless them with good health, happiness and good luck! We've certainly seen quite alot of this happening in practice since. 

Colourful displays for Têt everywhere

It's the year of the dragon

So many colourful roadside cafes

On the street food tour with the lovely Jessica

The famous train street in the Old Quarter

The Water Puppet Show

Beautiful street murals

Shops full of gifts for Têt

By the lake at night

Kiem lake with the bridge in the background

No street is too small for those scooters!

The ladies we met in Luang Prabang had highly recommended a visit to the Temple of Literature so we decided to take their advice. It was about half an hour's walk from our hotel so we set out on foot with the route taking us across quite a few different parts of Hanoi - through several market areas all full of Têt displays and loads of cafes and restaurants with locals sitting outside on the tiny little chairs that are so popular here. One of the best things about Hanoi is just soaking up all the atmosphere and the fabulous collision of old and new worlds everywhere. Scooters everywhere and then an old lady in traditional dress and hat (or Nón Lá) will cycle past in complete contrast. We saw lots of ladies carrying baskets of fruit too - some of them looked pretty laden but don't seem to bat an eyelid. They must be incredibly strong - certainly no need for circuit classes to keep them fit and mobile 😉

The Temple of Literature is a beautiful collection of buildings in a series of courtyards and gardens. It dates back to 1070, was dedicated to Confucius, sages and scholars and was the site of Vietnam's first university. This time we did buy the audio guides to help us navigate round and understand more of the history. Listening to the audio guide gave me a much better understanding of the level of respect that is given to knowledge and moral education here. As you walk round you get a real sense of the reverence held for the scholars who once studied here - details of which are inscribed on a series of large tablets (stelae) that one of the King's ordered to be erected. Students commonly visit this site and pray for good grades at one of the altars. In the final courtyard there was a beautiful display of artwork from young students - in view of the approaching Lunar New Year this was part of a competition to depict their interpretation of the year of the dragon. I thought they were all stunning, it would be quite a tough job to pick a winner 🏆 

 

Stuff on sale for Têt everywhere

Beautiful roadside displays

The Temple of Literature

Some very talented artwork on display there

Beautiful flowers planted all round the lake

Those carts must be so heavy to push around!

Locals dining out at night sitting on tiny chairs

More Têt gifts - such vivid colours!

Always on the look out for decent gluten free offerings Max had spotted a place that boasted gluten free pizzas. It was on the other side of town alongside another one of Hanoi's many lakes and we set off late one afternoon (we're early diners generally 😂) with google maps indicating it would take us about 1hr 15 mins to walk. It always seems to take much longer than the estimated time in Hanoi though presumably because of all the obstacles you have to navigate 😩. We weren't in a hurry but after more than half an hour we still seemed to be more than an hour away! What's more the walk was proving unpleasant taking us up a very busy highway and so we caved and decided to grab a taxi for the rest of the way. That proved to be an experience in itself. By this point we were in the thick of rush hour - which is just an even more intense experience than just the usual Hanoi chaos. In a car it's not so easy to weave through the traffic so we just sat back and watched all the scooters around us doing just that. Again with Têt fast approaching the roads were full of people ferrying kumquat trees and blossom trees strapped to their backs. It's quite a sight to behold! Children are often riding with their parents and at one point I saw a scooter with mum, dad and one child in the middle and another crouched in the footwell of the scooter. I was horrified but she looked totally relaxed and unphased despite the absolute chaos and cacophony of horns tooting around her 😂. 

Eventually we arrived at the small cafe but it turned out to be abit of a disappointment. They seemed to have run out of so many things and we could see they were using frozen supermarket style pizzas. We decided to bail out not entirely sure where to go next - we seemed to be out on a limb without any other gluten free options nearby. There was another Italian restaurant by the lake which got really good reviews on trip advisor but it was about a 40 min walk away (this was a very big lake we now realised!). Growing hunger was focusing our minds so we quickly decided to order another taxi to take us there. This was a really good call and salvaged the evening for us. It was a beautifully designed restaurant and the food was absolutely fabulous - definitely ranking as one of our top meals of the trip 😋. The area around this part of the lake was a new development that reminded us of Canary Wharf. There were alot of business people in the restaurant who seemed to be wining and dining and a couple of managers taking their teams out after work. We'd bagged the first table of the evening which was probably a good thing, if we'd turned up any later we might not have got a table as it was obviously a very popular haunt.  We caught another taxi back home afterwards and our driver turned out to be a rather odd character. From the word go he seemed very stressed and frustrated with the traffic - admittedly it was rather hectic and several scooters did try to squeeze through the smallest of gaps to get past us. At one point the driver wound down his window and reached out to swipe one of the drivers edging past! The route home took us past a few more tourist sites including the huge tomb of Ho Chi Minh which we hadn't yet seen. So we got a mini tour of the city as an added bonus that night 👍👍

Overall the weather wasn't as bad as the forecast had suggested it would be, the temperature did climb a little during our stay and it didn’t rain much to speak of other than a bit of drizzle at times. Despite the lack of sunshine we really enjoyed our time in Hanoi. It's got a really nice vibe and loads of interesting streets and places to explore. We probably only scratched the surface and it may well be somewhere we'll return to again.