Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi after a veeeerrrry long 24 hours of traveling – Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam with Precision Air, then Dar Es Salaam to Bangkok with a stopover in Muscat with Oman Air, and finally to Hanoi with Vietnam Airlines. After four planes and three transfers, we were feeling roughed up, but excited for our first stop in Southeast Asia!!

We arrived around noon, and stepped off the plane to a hot, humid climate. We avoided the taxis and found the cheap airport minibus that took us into the Old Quarter close to where our accommodation, Especen Hotel, was located. Taking the minibus was an immediate immersion into Vietnamese culture – hundreds of scooters whizzing by with complete disregard for any lanes or traffic rules, with most people wearing face masks to protect against the pollution and long sleeved shirts for sun protection despite the intense heat. Motorbikes were seen carrying everything - including entire families!

We found our hotel by foot, arriving very sweaty and dishevelled, and we were relieved to be shown into a very nice, clean room with air conditioning and a fan. After showering, Patricia passed out and Ben did some detective work to find a good tour to visit Ha Long Bay.

In the evening we set out to find a place to eat and explore the night life in Hanoi. We immediately liked Hanoi – it has an interesting mix of European and Asian architecture, thanks to the French and Chinese influence, and the people are very friendly, with many speaking English. The streets are full of scooters, the preferred mode of travel, and crossing the streets becomes a bit of an adventure where you feel like Moses parting the Red Sea as everyone disregards traffic lights and drives wherever and however they choose. It is a crazy system that somehow seems to work, and miraculously we did not see any of the mishaps that occur all over the city every minute of the day.

The sidewalks are full of eateries where customers sit on tiny plastic seats and tables and order plates such as Pho (noodles soup with homemade broth), fried rice or noodle dishes, congee with deep fried tofu, Vietnamese subs and assorted appetizers wrapped in banana leaf. The street food is cheap and delicious, and a cup of beer from the keg costs a quarter. For dinner we found a popular area for these sidewalk eateries in the Old Quarter, and sat down to enjoy the food and cold “Bia”, surrounded by a mix of locals and tourists enjoying the breeze from the many fans attached to the outside of the buildings.

The next day we found a sidewalk eatery with delicious Pho for breakfast – the only downside was the hot soup made us sweat like crazy in the heat! We then went on a mission to book our trip to Ha Long Bay, and found a good deal with APT Travels for a three day, two night trip. We also went to the train station and bought our tickets for Sapa, a beautiful town in the north of Vietnam where we planned to visit after our Ha Long Bay trip for some trekking amidst rice paddies and hillside tribes. But more on that in another post…

We explored the Old Quarter, walking around the lake and visiting the temple on the small island. We visited the History Museum where we learned a bit about how hard the Vietnamese have had to fight in order to gain and maintain their independence, a very sad story of over one hundred years of war. Despite the history of adversity, the Vietnamese seem a happy, pleasant and determined people who are very welcoming to tourists. It is hard to believe that this is a Communist country, given the large disparity between rich and poor, and the rampant capitalism that is the only way to survive with many small businesses spilling into every nook and cranny of the city - a very entrepreneurial culture.

But this is one of the serious charms about Vietnam and we never tired of seeing what was in each shop, on each bicycle or being carried by basket throughout the country.

After regaining some of our lost sleep and with the excitement of exploration in a new country before us, we woke early the next day for our bus ride to beautiful Ha Long Bay.