We arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital city, just around 10 am on a Saturday morning, after a little less than a one hour flight from Luang Prabang.  The Laos Airlines flight takes off from Luang Prabang surrounded by mountains and clearing fog with some blue sky and sun starting to pop through.

Just outside of Luang Prabang to the east are spectacular mountains and rock formations. Air transportation was probably a better choice than the five hour bus ride through the mountains.

Hanoi will be our home for the next four days before we travel to Ha Long Bay.  We then return back to Hanoi for a couple days before a journey to Sapa in northern Vietnam, near the China border.

We have planned our year long travel to this point by ourselves. We do enjoy the planning, but for this trip to Vietnam and part of Cambodia we are using Handspan Travel.  When all the math is said and done, we think the cost will be similar to what it would have been planning on our own. My thought is they likely get discounts with certain hotels, etc., that make up the difference. It has been a pleasurable experience working with them on the planning. Chi with Handspan has been fantastic!

It was very nice being met at the airport by our guide and driver versus figuring it all out on our own, especially with language barriers. Our hotel is just near Old Town, about 40 minutes from the airport. Traffic is light since it is Saturday. The guide asks if I am on TV. I guess he thought I look like the actor on Gas Monkey!

Our hotel is an older, beautiful nine story boutique hotel. We have a spacious room on the ninth floor with great amenities, beautiful wood floors and decor. And at the rates, we could just move in permanently!

We check in before noon, unpack and head out to explore the old town area and grab some lunch at a place filled with locals.

Basically only two things are served, bun cha and spring rolls.  This looks like a place where locals gather. The bun cha (barbecue pork with noodles) and crab and vegetable egg rolls are served with a huge mound of lettuce and various greens. We are seated outside at a small table and very short plastic stools. We come to find this miniature furniture is every in Vietnam of course. The waitress kindly shows us how to mix the ingredients before eating. It was delicious!

After lunch we continue to stroll through old town then around the center lake in town, Hoan Kiem Lake. It reminds us a bit like a “Central Park”. There are many people, young and old, enjoying the streets around the lake. Hanoi has a population of over 7 million and Vietnam over 95 million. It seems there are many visitors here from other parts of the country. One young group of girls we walk by wanted their picture with us Westerners.

We head back home for an afternoon siesta before we head out to explore the city, and its food and lights later in the evening.

The streets of Hanoi are bustling on a Saturday night, with beautiful lights and busy streets. We walk through the Old Town area, the Hanoi Old Quarter and eat at Cha Ca La Vong. We loved the grilled fish at this apparently 100 year old restaurant. It is served with a mix of greens, noodles and a few sauces and other ingredients including fish sauce, shrimp sauce, soy sauce, sweet and sour, peanuts and red chilis! Outstanding!

We end the night with a stroll through the night markets. There are more clothing and other merchandise, and less food in this market, but fun to experience!

Sunday

Wow! What a fantastic first full day in Hanoi. And do I mean full day. It feels a lot like a workday with our busy schedule , lol. We start with an international breakfast at our hotel.  Unfortunately or fortunately I have to try both the Vietnamese and the more American style breakfast.

We begin the day’s tour with a stop at the Ho Chi Minh Complex, which includes the museum, presidential palace and Stilt House on the same grounds. Our guide is terrific and shares many insights into Ho Chi Minh’s impact on Vietnam and its history.

Ho Chi Minh’s house on the grounds is a traditional and small two story “stilt” house, where he lived from time to time in the fifties and sixties. He chose to live here even though he was able to stay in the enormous Presidential Palace, choosing not to because of the dire situation and living conditions of many Vietnamese. Many important decisions in Vietnam’s history were made in this house and on these grounds.

We also are just in time to see the changing of the guard during our visit at the Mausoleum. The Mausoleum contains his embalmed remains.

From the museum we stop to experience a jolt of real Vietnamese coffee. It is stronger than espresso and a treat for me since I like bold, unsweetened and straight up coffee! Tracey and the guide enjoyed their coffees with sugar and creme. Interestingly they serve a “glass” of tea before the coffee.

Onward we go to a visit the Ethnology Museum to learn a bit about a few of the 54 distinct ethnic groups in Vietnam. The Museum has several structures representing the living quarters, history and culture of the groups.  At this stop Tracey has more opportunity to help a couple beautiful young Vietnamese ladies with English.

After a lunch, we head to the Temple of Literature, touted as Vietnam’s first University. This is graduation weekend and there are hundreds of graduates here for ceremony and celebration. The city streets are also busy with graduates as we make our way around the city. Jobs should be available for these grads since the country’s GDP is projected to maintain a strong annual growth rate for some years to come.

Before heading back to our hotel, we stop at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi’s Old Quarter.  There is a legend associated with this lake.  Hồ Hoàn Kiếm means “Lake of the Returned Sword”.  The legend says Vietnamese emperor Le Loi received a sword from a magic turtle at the lake. Le Loi then drove the Chinese out of Vietnam with the sword, which was then reclaimed by the turtle after the invaders left.  Today the streets surrouding the lake our closed on weekends and is a favorite spot to hang out for or both locals and tourists.

We make it back to the hotel at four p.m., giving us one hour before our food tour starts around Hanoi, via the most popular form of transportation here, scooters. The scooter traffic here is unique in the world, packed, going in every direction regardless of designated road direction and the color of the stoplight. Horns are used not to curse other drivers, rather to orchestrate the chaos, signaling the intent and direction of the driver. Pedestrians must zig zag their way across streets. The scooters are typically driven slowly so there appears to be few accidents. I did see one scooter turned over on the middle of a very busy intersection where several other scooter drivers stopped to help pick the scooter up, dust off the driver and all then continue in their way.

It is also amazing what they transport. Just about everything is transported via scooter. We see a large desk being loaded on a scooter for transport. It is also not unusual to see four or even five passengers on a scooter. “Four way stop” signs mean “four way go”! But it all seems to flow well, sort of like water flowing and finding the “path of least resistance”.

But, I digress. The first stop on the foodie tour was Huyen Thuy. Here we had papaya salad and dumplings. Our second stop we try Nom Thit Bo Kho or dried beef salad, pork and chicken dumplings.  More food…third stop Banh Cuon – Bun Thang.

We are not done yet! Our fourth and final stop takes us over the historical Long Bien Bridge over the Red River to another restaurant of all locals. For an appetizer we have the Nem chua (fermented pork). For the main course, we have chicken, a fresh chicken, literally, killed after we ordered and then stewed in a boiling pot right at our table.  This is served with greens (including the popular Vietnamese morning glory, called Rau Muong or water spinach), taro, and rice crackers. All washed down with a few cold Bia Hanoi!

The food tour was excellent.  It is a little more assuring and seems a bit less dangerous sampling many different Hanoi delicacies from local places with our great guides.

Monday Day 3

It’s an early breakfast and start to our second full day in Vietnam. Today we venture about 60 km outside of the city to the Perfume Pagoda. Tuan, our guide, picks us up in a “Ferrari” SUV (at least it had a Ferrari sticker on it, lol). It’s 8 am and rush hour. Not much different than the weekend…very very busy streets!

The Perfume Pagoda is a series of temples or pagodas built into a mountain side.  Our guide tells us most people in Vietnam will say they are Buddhist but few, maybe twenty percent formally practice. Many may “go to temple” but “not religious”.  As our guide says, “when life is difficult, one needs something to believe.”  All sound familiar? I guess all is not that different across the human race.

En route, we drive out of Hanoi until urban areas mix among rice paddies, or the “countryside” as they call it here. The farms are very small with homes intermingled, a product of Vietnam’s large population and small land mass. We stop at a small town market. Most of the locals seem entertained by our visit. The vendors got a laugh when they said hello and I said xin chao. We buy some freshly made rice crackers for a snack. It was sprinkled with peanuts so very good.

The pagodas and Buddhist shrines are 60km southwest of Hanoi built into the karst cliffs of Huong Tich Mountain (Mountain of the Fragrant Traces). To get there takes a drive by car, then boat, then a hike up the mountain.

We are rowed up the calm river waters among the craggy hills by a lady in about a 25 foot metal boat. What a beautiful peaceful relaxing ride, about one hour to where we start our hike.

There are many temples and pagodas, nineteen in all. We walked up a hill to one of them before lunch. After lunch, we took the cable car up, definitely recommended. We walked down after the visit to catch the scenic relaxing boat ride back to where we left our driver. A two hour ride back through countryside and city returned us to our Hanoi hotel.

Something non Asian sounds good for dinner tonight so we choose pizza. We ate at 4P pizza and it was actually some of the best pizza we have had in some time!

Tuesday

Today we are looking for a casual day. A little sleeping in, enjoying our nice hotel room and breakfast.

Later in the morning we make it to Hoa Lo Prison or the Hanoi Hilton as it was referred to by American POWs from the Vietnam War. Prior to that period it had a long history of being used as a prison by French Colonists in Vietnam. All, of course, a very moving and a sad testament to how horrible mankind can treat one another.

On a much lighter note, we walk to a coffee shop near our hotel, famous for its “egg coffee”. No, it just doesn’t sound very good initially, however, when you think about it, it all makes sense. The mixture of Vietnamese black coffee, egg yolk, condensed milk and sugar tastes to me like Creme Brûlée! Absolutely delicious!

The coffee shop is not the easiest to find.  You actually walk through a fabric store, exit the back of the store, and enter a courtyard.  This is where your order is taken, then you climb two or three stories up an iron spiral staicase to a roofttop to enjoy your coffee with a view!

We finish off our “lunch”‘with a mixed fruit smoothie down a small bustling alleyway, picking the spot with lots of locals. We will have to come back for the banana avocado smoothie next time!

We move on to cocktails and dinner at the Hanoi Social Club at five o’clock with one of Aussie mates we met in Laos. Sheena also made it to Vietnam after Laos. Great catching up with her!

The next morning is an early one with breakfast and final prep for our trip to Ha Long Bay! There is more to explore in Hanoi, but we will be back to Hanoi a few times during our one month plus stay in Vietnam!