Vietnam: Hanoi

It was a whole different experience when I started working. I knew that travel was never going to be the same again. Money was always going to be the issue (now with other life responsibilities on my list) and by my age, I had gotten used to a few luxuries in life that I could have gone without about 5- 10 years back (hot water showers etc). However, there were still many places that I had not seen and I did not want to give that thought up just because I was beginning a new chapter of my life. So I was quite determined to plan a trip and get away from work - and by that, I did not mean just the weekend getaway kind of thing. I meant like a real getaway, at least two weeks away from work where I could just forget about my working a life for that moment and not grip about having to go back to work on monday when I had only just arrived at my destination the previous friday.

Picking a destination was not difficult last year. It was going to be somewhere in Asia because ironically, it was one of the least visited continents on my logbook. I blame this on the fact that I've been living in European countries for the past7 years before my return to Singapore. Or perhaps another reason could be that I always knew that eventually I would return and would thus make more sense to explore Asia from an asian base (practical me says that). One of the first countries that came to mind was Vietnam. It was always a country that I've heard alot about and for a lone traveller, it seemed like the reasonably safe choice as well. After that decision was made, I made my booking early in March (in part also spurred on by a weak US dollar and discounts offered to me by the travel agency if I booked early).

December came by so fast and it was such a long time since I booked, that I had actually approached it with kind of a glum "Ok let's get out of here" outlook. And so it came, 4 Dec, I left home in the early hours of the morning, while everyone was still fast asleep with my backpack fully packed. My flight to Hanoi was pretty pleasant other than the fact that I got ripped of 400,000 Viet dong more during the taxi ride to the city (but I'm over that). I should also say now that in terms of taking pictures, it's been one my laziest efforts. So half of the photos here are courtesy of my travel mates and also because many of them had better cameras than my old canon. :P

So first impressions of Hanoi - crazy! It was so different from S'pore and everything I had read online and in the guidebooks were all true. The hotel was located on a busy street and was out, we were greeted with this choas of motorcycles and the occasional taxi/car. Crossing the street is a leap of faith and boy did I take many of those while in Hanoi. After the first day though, I was crossing roads like I owned them and having this "bang me if you dare" attitude. That's the kind of mentality one has to take in the city - if not, you would never move.

Busy motorcyclists on the streets. Heaps of street pollution as well, hence the face masks. 

Arrived in Hanoi mid afternoon and after depositing my bags and having a quick bite, went to take a walk down to Hoan Kiem Lake which was a quick 10 minute walk from the hotel. Local legend says that a giant turtle lives in the lake and it is many centuries old and is a symbol of good luck for the city. Interestingly, the turtle is one of the four mythical creatures in Vietnamese culture. The other creatures are dragon, phoenix and unicorn (if I remember my guide correctly).

Views of Hoan Kiem Lake from all angles

This picture was taken on another day in the early hours of the morning - just after we had touch down from Sapa. Iz and I decided to go and walk around the lake to catch some action since it was better than just staying in the hotel and doing nothing. Surprisingly or not surprisingly, most of the local town was awake and at the park, doing things from tai chi exercise to fan dancing and techno aerobics (I kid you not). The most amazing thing is that the viet housewives would just stand by the waterfront, do their techno charged aerobics and be conversing to their friends standing on their sides very casually. The men just sit down on the benches and chat. I know that people hate stereotypes, but what I found was that in this country, the women tend to be a bit more active than men - leisure and workwise. Will expand on that later. Should also note that the park is a very popular spot for wedding photos. On my first day I counted at least 10 couples having their wedding shots taken at the park and they were changing in public....

The area around the lake is surrounded by numerous high rise buildings which make for great rooftop bars  - where a group of us had a drink one evening. From up there, we pretty much had a bird's eye view of the lake and the night scene of Hanoi from the top. From the top, the lack of traffic rules was made even more obvious.  

Night view of Hanoi plus a picture of us having a bowl of pho by the street - only 30,000 dong and no, did not get food poisoning.

Food/drink - no visit to any town/country is ever complete without trying the local cuisine. As much as I can, I often try to eat the local dishes and not go for the safe european choices - eg. pasta. Most people are skeptical of buying food from the street and for good reason too. However, I also argued to myself that if the locals can eat this stuff everyday, maybe one bowl wouldn't hurt. So on my first day, I was exploring the streets when I chanced upon this lady selling banana friters made freshly! Too a chance and bought one (only 6000 dong) and I was eating it from a piece of newspaper (ink banana fritters - who cares!) Gosh it was delicious. Too delicious.The next best experience was having a bowl of pho with my tour mates by the street side - yeah sitting on tiny stools on the pavement and slurping noodles with pig organs in it.

Picture of the banana fritter on the top left and A attempting to purchase a pork bun from a lady outside our hotel. There are also many ladies walking around the street selling donut sticks - plain, sugared, mung bean filling etc. These are worth trying as well and usually only like 10,000 dong for a stick.

Another local dish - Bun Cha with spring rolls. Love the Vietnamese rice noodles. I could eat a load of these non stop. One of my personal favourite foods from Vietnam.

Having a drink in Hanoi Old quarter on my first night in Hanoi. Beer (or alcohol in general) is really cheap here, like 30,000 for a bottle and it taste decent enough. They have their own brewed beer which is distilled from like a metal barrel kind of thing, but I never tried it. To be safe, go for the bottled ones.

 Sighseeing. The tour started proper the next day and we visited the main attractions of Hanoi including a water puppet show in the afternoon. Pictures below!

Hanoi Hilton (Hao Lo prison) - built by the French, this is where the French imprisoned and executed many of the Vietnamese freedom fighters. They had some pretty brutal ways of torture, included an elevated jail cell in which prisoners would be chained to the top of an elevated floor and made to lie down (blood flowing to the brain = headaches). The prison was also known as the "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam War as it held American POW's shot down. Pictures of the drain (above) depict how some prisoners managed to escape by crawling through the drains out of the compound.

Afternoon entertainment - water puppet show. To be honest, I did not really understand it as I do not speak the local language and it can be pretty boring for the ignorant. The highlight was at the end of the show where they had this huge dragon puppet fly into the air.

Visit to the one pillar pagoda and the grounds/house where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked when he was alive. Vietnamese love the colour yellow - hence many important buildings tend to be painted in that colour.

Possibly one of the must sees in Hanoi - the HCM mausoleum. One thing that striked me particularly was how they kept the field very clean and tidy. Even as we walked to the mausoleum, one could see public workers dilligently pruning the fields - which btw are fields of equal sized squares, meant to represent countries of equality.

Walking past Lenin square and the war museum enroute to the mausoleum