Our stay in Vietnam ends here in Hanoi, capital of the country.
Bus from Sapa to Hanoi
From Sapa we take an express bus that leaves at 3:30 pm and arrives in Hanoi at 9:30 pm. This bus is certainly the nicest bus we have ever had in Asia. The seats are super comfy and we will sleep most of the way.
We arrive in Hanoi, and it is incredibly hot outside. We walk to our hotel which is in the old Hanoi and are thrilled to get inside the air conditioned climate of our rooms.
We will spend 3 full days here in Hanoi.
Hanoi vs Ho Chi Minh
Hanoi is the second largest city in Vietnam after Ho Chi Minh. The differences between these two cities are pretty substantial. On one side you have the young, modern, very dynamic and almost Western-like Ho Chi Minh, and on the other hand the old, more traditional Hanoi. Invaded and occupied by the Chinese for 1,000 years, Hanoi keeps a very heavy Chinese cultural influence. The city has a rich historical and cultural past dating back thousands of years, whereas Ho Chi Minh city is only a few hundreds of years old.
But what is very similar between these two cities is the traffic. Here again the noise of the engines and people honking is astounding. With all the motorbikes, crossing the street is a true challenge. The fact that drivers don’t stop when the light is red makes it even more difficult.
As it was the case in Ho Chi Minh, pollution is a problem. From the rooftop of our hotel, where we grab breakfast, we can notice the cloud of pollution.
Hanoi old quarters
For our first day in Hanoi, we decide to visit the old quarters. And we immediately fall under its charm. We walk through tiny streets where street vendors and motorbikes crowd the way. The old houses and small neighborhood restaurants are everywhere. It is Saturday and there are people everywhere (actually we are pretty sure it’s the case no matter the day of the week).
A lot of people are outside sitting on the sidewalk, on these typical tiny little seats that would be designed for kids back in Europe.
There is a very particular atmosphere, we have trouble realizing we are in the capital city.
We then make our way to the Hoan Kiem lake, located right in the center of the old quarters. The lake boarded by trees is THE meeting point for all the locals.
On the weekends, the street around the lake is closed to vehicles and there are often events going on.
Today, an event meant to educate people about protecting the environment is organized. It is nice to see such events in Vietnam because it seems that they are behind on these issues. Plenty of workshops are put in place, as well as games for the kids. A great initiative.
We walk around the lake and go to the Ngoc Son pagoda, located on a tiny island that we can reach by crossing a nice red wooden bridge.
From there we make our way to the St Joseph cathedral, known for being the Notre Dame from Southeast Asia. Unfortunately it is closed when we get there, but the outside is still pretty.
The streets around the cathedral are full of charm, plenty of nice little shops or restaurants.
There is even a brewery, one that we discovered in Ho Chi Minh, and we decide to come back here this afternoon for a good beer.
The train street
As we continue inside the old quarters we run into the famous “train street”. This is a very unique part of town where the houses are built right next to the railway tracks.
This is an emblematic part of the city and draws a lot of tourists like us, coming to see how the locals live right next to the railway tracks, and see the train ride through this super narrow street.
When we arrive we can see how the locals live, and by live we mean take over the railway tracks. Indeed, some cook on the tracks, while others install chairs and tables or simply take a rest on the tracks.
Of course they now exactly when the train comes. Actually when we walk along the tracks we see plenty of tiny cafes where people are sitting, waiting to see the train ride through.
The next train is in 30 minutes, so we decide to sit at one of those cafes while waiting for the train.
Matt takes advantage of the opportunity to taste an Egg Coffee, specialty of the city. Born during the 1950’s during a milk shortage after the war, a barista decided to replace milk with an egg. Given the huge success of this recipe he opened his own coffee shop, and now everyone across the city serves this beverage. The Egg Coffee is traditionally made with an egg yolk, sugar, concentrated milk and coffee of course. Everything is mixed together, giving a nice thick finish.
As we are having our drinks, all of a sudden, the servers and people from the neighborhood start yelling and folding up all the chairs and tables and we get asked to stand as close to the wall as possible. We understand that the train is about to arrive. It is pretty impressive to see at what speed they are able to clear everything off the tracks.
A few seconds later we see the train arriving. Pretty insane.
Standing along the wall, the train comes only a few inches from us. We are surprised to see that the train is this big and this long !
We loved our visit of this pretty uncommon neighborhood.
Neighborhood of the 36 streets
We then continue to the 36 streets of Hanoi. This part of the city is really unique. Indeed, each street has its specialty shops. Meaning all the shops on a given street sell the exact same things.
We first walk through the stainless steel street.
Then through the sewing street.
The cardboard street.
Herbs and spices street.
Fake flowers street.
This area is unbelievable.
It is here that we stop for lunch in a restaurant hidden on the second floor of a building, known for its Banh Mi (the delicious Vietnamese sandwiches).
Dong Xian market
After lunch we go to the Dong Xian market, paradise of the knock off textile products.
Apparently this is not the best time of day to come, since all the sellers are taking a nap.
Craft beer break
It is so hot in the afternoon that we decided to do like the locals and get back to our hotel for a nap. Before getting outside early evening to have a delicious craft beer at Pasteur Street Brewing Company.
Atypical dinner
For dinner, Brigitte found a restaurant not far from the hotel, the Cha Ca Thang Long. Here there is no menu, everybody gets served the same dish. We are pretty intrigued as the server sits us down and starts putting a bunch of stuff on our table : noodles, peppermint, spices, a weird sauce and a heating device in the middle of the table. He then arrives with a big pan full of fish, that we starts to heat up on the table. He adds some veggies and mixes everything. He starts to serve Justin and shows us how to make our own bowl using everything we have in front of us. All of that without saying a single word.
A very fun and unique experience that brought us a lot of laughter, and also happened to be delicious. We have to say that food in Vietnam never fails to impress us.
Long Bien bridge
The next day we go visit the emblematic Long Bien bridge. Its particularity is that it is used by trains, motorbikes and pedestrians, no cars here. Its other particularity is that it has been attacked 175 times by the Americans without ever being taken down. Making it a symbol for the entire country.
Afternoon at the swimming pool
We had initially planned on going to visit the Tran Quoc pagoda next, oldest pagoda in the city, but we weren’t dressed appropriately so couldn’t go in. Given the heat we decide to spend the afternoon at the swimming pool of a hotel nearby. With the temperatures outside, this felt amazing.
Water puppets show
After a quick shower at the hotel, we go to see a water puppet show, which is apparently a must see in Hanoi.
The puppet show is a succession of 14 short acts that are pretty funny. The whole thing is accompanied by local musicians and singers. Despite everything being spoken in Vietnamese, we had no problem understanding what each act was about. The show is really well done and we had a great time.
hanoifreelocaltours.com
For dinner we made a reservation in a rather upscale restaurant : Grandma’s. The decoration was as pretty as the menu looked excellent. Here the dishes are meant to be shared. Brigitte and Justin will get the duck, while we share a beef dish. At they were both fantastic.
Last day in Hanoi : massage, shopping and hair cuts
For our last day in Hanoi it will be massage, shopping and hair cuts. Maider and Brigitte offered themselves a massage for their respective birthdays. Actually lets make it 2 massages ! The first one a 75 minute lymphatic massage of the entire body, followed by another full 75 minute facial massage. They both come out fully relaxed and rejuvenated.
During that time, the guys went to get a haircut. And Matt decided to surprise Maider… He SHAVED HIS BEARD ! Yes you read that right. Maider almost didn’t recognize him when she got back in the hotel room. Here is a before and after shot :
We go for lunch all together to eat our last Bun Cha, before spending the afternoon shopping for some souvenirs.
Maider will also take to time to get a haircut of her own.
So it is here that our adventure in Vietnam ends. We say goodbye to Maider’s parents who leave the next day to Ho Chi Minh before catching their flight back to France. We, on the other hand, fly to the Philippines tonight.
We spent almost a month the 4 of us together in this very unique country, and probably our favorite in Southeast Asia. We loved spending time with the locals thanks to the different home-stays we stayed at. We met amazing people, discovered landscapes that are just as amazing and so different from North to South, and more importantly we discovered delicious and diversified food (our favorite in Asia for sure). He had heard a lot of negative things before coming to Vietnam, but as you can see from our articles, we loved it. It is true that mass tourism is changing things in a negative way (that is only our point of view) but if you just step a little outside of the beaten path you can find amazing things to do and people who are open, smiling and the nicest beings we ever met.
Now time to leave to go to our “bonus” country : the Philippines. Indeed, initially our trip was to end in Vietnam, but we have some time and money left so we are extending the pleasure of traveling just a little bit longer ! Matt wanted to stop writing these stupid articles (this country isn’t even on our custom made map so nobody would have noticed… but Maider won the fight), so we will see you in country number 11 !