We touched down in Hanoi right on time, and bid a fond farewell to our SQ cabin crew, before hightailing it through the airport to Passport Control. Like everywhere to do with passports, there were queues. Unlike the regulations we’d read about online, the official didn’t ask about travel insurance or vaccination status, just checked the e-visa and we were off.
Our taxi driver drove relatively sedately compared to how I remember Vietnam traffic: mostly staying in a lane and mostly giving indication of changing lanes (but by flashing his lights rather than using the indicator). The trip between the airport and the city took about 45 minutes, and we were definitely ready to stop moving by the time we arrived!
The hotel we’re staying at, The Imperial Hotel and Spa, is lovely – great art deco-style features and the staff bend over backwards to assist. Plus it’s really close to the lake and the “walking streets” that have been blocked off for a festival this weekend. We’re in a “balcony room” which means there is a 0.8m balcony on one side. Given it’s on the 7th floor, it’s probably a good thing there’s not room to hang out there, as it’s quite high up.
Even though we were tired, we decided to hit the streets and explore a little. Being summer here, it’s humid, rainy and hot. We got a bit lost (of course) and the wet streets and humidity quickly turned into blistered feet – ouch! We did find some yummy summer rolls and smoothies down the road from our hotel though.
The first proper day meant more wandering, exploring the Old Town, the French Quarter and joining the hordes walking around the lake. We sampled two coffee specialties of Hanoi: Coconut Coffee at Cong Ca Phe, and Egg Coffee at Giang Ca Phe. I prefer the Coconut Coffee – it’s basically an affogato but with coconut icecream. Yum.
Then it was obligatory pho for lunch, at Pho 10. We both had the Special Bowl, which looked like it had a bit of everything, and R had some of the fried bread donut accompaniment. Delish!
After a well-earned massage at the hotel, we headed out again to join the partying on the walking streets around the lake. We had some fried spring rolls and a drink at one of the upstairs cafes on the square, before taking in a traditional Water Puppet show. Great fun, especially for kids.
We had organised a guide for Day 2 to take us to see Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, the pagoda on the West Lake and to take us around the Old Town for some street food.
We walked through the old town and past Train Street to get to the mausoleum complex. Apparently there used to be cafes lining Train Street to watch the train go past, but regulations have stopped this from happening. It’s a novelty to watch the train zoom within half a metre of the houses, but I guess if you lived there it would be annoyingly noisy, especially if you aren’t now allowed to set up a cafe on your balcony!
Our guide warned us that the queues were long for the mausoleum, but we didn’t realise we would be queueing for 2 hours! The line snaked around the entire mausoleum complex, and around the block as well! Apparently it is a popular Sunday destination for families and schoolchildren. The gardens and grounds were beautiful, and the mausoleum was huge and brutalist style. The queue basically goes into the mausoleum to view Uncle Ho’s preserved body (guarded of course) and then out again.
After two hours of sweltering queueing, we were in and out within two minutes, by which time we, and especially R, were feeling a little lightheaded from dehydration (and we worked out later that we were sunburnt as well). Luckily there were drinks for sale, and a very kind gentleman gave me his souvenir paper fan to ply over R until he felt a bit better. Thank you, random kind person!
We decided on a taxi to the pagoda and back to the Old Town for some food, rather than walking back. We tasted a number of delicious treats and it was great to have a guide with us to help find out what food was more likely to be lower gluten. We sat at a street corner on tiny stools and started with dried beef salad (dried beef, cooked beef slices, green papaya, herbs and peanuts), then moved onto mushroom dumplings made from cassava flour, and then my favourite – sticky rice parcels!
Our second stop was a hole in the wall cafe (literally, we walked into what looked like a cellar) and had summer rolls and fried sticky rice balls. Third was another tiny cafe for “Obama bun cha” — apparently the way Obama had it when he visited Hanoi, ie with beer Hanoi. We finished our tasting with iced mixed fruit (jackfruit, mango, dragonfruit, melon, and surprisingly, avocado!) with yoghurt – a perfect sweet treat to end.
After waving goodbye to our guide, and napping, we headed out to try another Hanoi specialty: turmeric grilled fish. R chose a small restaurant which, we found out, only sold one dish: grilled fish! It came with bun noodles and herbs, and was really delicious. I’d been ambivalent about fish for dinner, but it was very tasty.
After getting sunburnt, I was on the lookout for a hat for our next day’s adventures. I found a number of “Made in Vietnam” shops selling North Face caps etc, but I was after something more shady (but not one of the souvenir conical bamboo hats). Luckily, the street markets provided the perfect straw hat which will do nicely, and only 50,000dong (~$3AU).
The next day we were booked in for a day trip out to Ninh Binh (I kept saying it “Nimbin”, but no.) The word on this tour was that it would be visiting a couple of temples, a lovely 2 hour float down the river on a sampan boat, then a short hike up to a lookout for panoramic views. This all sounded great, until you combine it with the weather. Like yesterday, it was 37C and swelteringly humid!
The Temples of the Kings was interesting – similar layout to the Temple of Literature which we’d previously visited in Hanoi, with rectangular fishponds and gardens with shrines to the relevant people. Very much aligned with Feng Shui, according to our guide. Many sellers were plying trade with hand fans, conical hats and water to stave off the effects of the heat.
There was a “short” climb up to a lookout, but I got about 70% of the way up before my knees and fitness gave up! One of the sellers, a lady who must have been in her 80s, followed me up the stairs to sell me a fan, so I gave up protesting and bought one in admiration of her superlative fitness!
The next stop was the river. In the high season there are hundreds of rowers who take boats with 3-4 tourists out along the river and back. This sounded relaxing and a delightful way to spend the afternoon, but with the sun beating down on us, and with the two of us lopsidedly sharing the boat’s wooden slats and hand-held umbrella with two petite Vietnamese ladies, the trip was more of an exercise in balance. We saw some amazing sights — I can see why people call the area the “Ha Long Bay of the Land”. The dramatic karsts are amazing, and we were taken through a number of cave passageways that became longer and lower as we continued.
After extricating ourselves from the sampan boat, the next stop was the outlook climb. I decided discretion was the better part of valour, and spent my time exploring the lotus plantation instead. I was amazed at the number of people conducting photoshoots on the boardwalks, until we noticed a shop at the entrance to the area which rented colourful dresses perfectly in tone with the flowers, for that perfect shot.
The bus took two hours to get back to Hanoi again, by which time we were keen to get some dinner. A few drops of rain pattered down as we left the hotel, and we resolved to find something easy relatively close by rather than seeking out anything in particular. As the rain grew a little harder, we dived into a little shop and ordered Bun Bo Hue – noodle soup.
The rain and intense thunderstorm seemed to be getting worse outside, lightning flashing and thunder cracking every few seconds, so we continued to munch on our noodles to wait it out… until we noticed the puddles of water seeping through the floor. We got up to go, only to find that the front of the shop was even more underwater, the front roller shutter closed and all the customers with their feet up on chairs! The roadway was flooded and so was the front of the shop. We in the back room had had it easy in comparison, as we only had a couple of cm of water under us.
About an hour after we’d walked in, the water had subsided enough on the street for us to wade out (around 20-30cm deep), and we gingerly threaded our way back to the hotel. Since they were on the higher side of the lake, they’d not suffered flooding, but we noticed the next morning that a few big branches had come down from one of the trees on the street. Dramatic weather for us to say goodbye to Hanoi with!
Two Weeks Away 
Fantastic post….. loved reading about your adventures, if at times they weren’t exactly what you thought you were going to get, but that’s the great part about travel. Travel safe