Experiencing the big city life in Hanoi
Hanoi is the political and cultural capital city of Vietnam. This is probably the busiest city we have ever been too. The city’s recorded population in 2023 was 5,253,000. Everywhere you look, there are people, motorcycles, tourists, shops, lights, products, advertisements, skyscrapers, smells and hooting. Despite how busy it is, the streets of Hanoi are generally clean. Sidewalks, shop entrances and pavements are sweeped, washed and rinsed on a daily basis.
Granted how busy it is, the locals, including the shop owners don’t bother you like the hagglers in many other developing countries. Even if you show interest in what they’re selling, they’re not really bothered. We had to engage and ask for the price before we were helped. This is quite different to what we experienced in other countries. A pleasant surprise. Turns out, if locals are found to bother ,cheat or trick a tourist they can be fined an enormous amount. From our experience, the local were respectful towards tourists throughout the whole country.
The roads are extremely busy, but it is always flowing. Before arriving to Vietnam, we read a lot about the task of crossing a road by foot. After experiencing Turkey, Thailand and then Bali, we think we gained enough experience to figure it out. The secret, wait at the pedestrian crossing, wait for the robot to indicate that it’s “safe” for pedestrians to cross, look left, right and left again then walk and keep your pace. Don’t go too slow, and definitely don’t run. The motorcycles don’t really stop, nor do the cars, but they drive slow enough to adjust their pace to allow you to cross the road. Walk with confidence and just observe the oncoming traffic in case there’s a chance-taker.
The North of Vietnam still requires their locals to wear masks when working in public services and public transport. Out of respect, we also purchased masks when using public transport. Turns out there was another COVID-19 outbreak in April 2023 which reintroduced some restrictions to contain the spread.
Accommodation
We stayed in a serviced apartment in Hoàn Kiếm called Livie, which we would recommend. It’s a spacious apartment with a washing machine, small kitchen, basin, fridge, enough chairs with desks as well as a couch to use during your working hours. There was also Wi-Fi, although not the most reliable, so we used the Nomad app (e-sim) and purchased data when Livie’s internet started acting up. Given how much time we were going to spend in the apartment while working, the apartment’s cleanliness is important. We were beyond impressed with their service and standard of cleanliness. The locals take great pride in being clean and tidy. It is also well air-conditioned. On the one side of the apartment, there’s a building under construction and it can get quite loud, however, the apartment management always kept us informed if the construction team was working late. Regardless, this didn’t affect our stay.
December – Christmas time
Festivity is high in the air. The trees, buildings, main landmarks are all decorated with colourful beautiful lights, there’s Christmas music playing in the shops, families are out at night with their children dressed in red and taking photos at all the decorations. The atmosphere is tangibly happy.
The streets surrounding the Hoan Kiem lake is closed off to vehicles during the weekend and are laid out with tables, chairs, games, entertainment, live music, vendors on their bicycles selling their wares. The shops on the roads remain open.
Make time to visit Maison Centrale for a breakdown of the French and Vietnamese war followed by the American-Vietnamese war. Do yourselves a favour and watch the movie “The Best Beer Run Ever” with Zach Efron which is based on a true story regarding the war.
We also walked to the Presidential palace which has a very impressive garden and is massive in terms of space. You are welcome to either pay and walk through the presidential gardens or walk around it, free of charge. As we approached the entrance of the presential palace, I couldn’t help but notice this stunning familiar looking flag next to the Vietnamese flag. Of course, we recognised it! It’s the South African flag, six huge flags flying soaring in the air. Perhaps we mistook the presidential palace for the South African embassy? With the help of Google we researched and saw that the South African deputy president had visited the Vietnamese presence the day before. But what a proud moment to see our beautiful South African flag in the country that we were visiting!
Given the French influence, baguettes are baked every morning and seems to be the go-to meal for the morning. It’s either made filled with some form of pate, beef, chicken or pork and then with picked carrots and radish and yummy sauce. This freshly served baguette sandwich (Bánh mì) was something we looked forward to every single day! Nyam! On our fifth day, we even braved out a “mixed bread” which was also delicious.
Cycle tour in Old Quarter
When wondering around the Old Quarter we noticed the locals riding tricycles with a 2 seater red chair in front for tourists. We thought why not! We got an hour tour going past all the various streets, shops, people and some famous landmarks such as temples and monuments. We negotiated 125 000d per person. As he took us around, we saved the locations of the places we wanted to checkout by foot; beer street, the night market, shops that were selling items we took a liking in, etc.
While touring, the cyclist would tap one of us on our shoulder to show us something. Tap tap, “Look!” he tells me pointing to the restaurant with a smoked animal displayed in front of the shop’s window. “Wok! he exclaimed.” In attempt to understand what he’s saying, I repeat what I think the smoked piece of meat looked like, “Pork?” He responds, “No, wog.” Confused, I think to myself its too small for chicken, and too big for beef. So it must be pork. So I repeat “Pig.” This goes back and forth for two or three times, until he stops and goes “Woof Woof!” It left us speechless and shocked. We just witnessed our first smoked dog. My mind wouldn’t stop wondering what it was that we had in our “mixed bread” earlier that week.
It seems dogs is still being eaten in Vietnam. During our visit, we’ve heard different perspectives. Some say, dogs were only eaten when there was nothing left to eat (on some of the islands), whereas some cities serve dogs as a type of delicacy meat. However, dogs have started to become domestic pets and there’s been a decrease in dog consumption. It can still be found though if you know what to be on the lookout for.
We visited two of the bridges that were built to cross Red Lake. Long Bien was one of the first bridges to be built finishing in the early 1900’s and was declared the longest bridge in Asia of that time. Today, the bridge is still used, but only cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians can use it to cross. Since then, five more bridges were built to cross the Red Lake.
Recommended places to have eat:
- Vi Quang – a local restaurant; known for their quang noodles. This is where we had our first dinner shortly after we landed. We got a complimentary salad with a chili sauce on the side.
- Au Lac Family restaurant – huge variety to choose from (local and western food).
- Hotto Younger – Japanese food served in a frying pot while it’s still sizzling.
- Little Thai Restaurant Hanoi – Scrumptious food for the foodies that love Thai.
- 2anhzai – small little restaurant, but really good food. Sit on top floor and do street-gazing while eating.
One evening we took a seat at a restaurant that was well occupied with locals. Since the start of our trip though, we Google translate hasn’t always been the most accurate in translations and we’ve giggled one too many times at the incorrect (sometimes direct translation). Anyways, we opened the menu and saw we can choose noodles, rice or vegetables. The waiter approaches us busy on his phone, and hands the phone over for us to read, “This restaurant serves pig intestines” is what Google translates. Morne and I look at each other, burst out laughing. This was going to go down as the funniest incorrectly Google translated phrase! But we were still unsure what he was trying to tell us. The waiter takes back his phone and types again and hands over his phone to us, “We serve whole pig intestines.” Then the token dropped. There was nothing wrong with Google Translation. This waiter was trying to warn us from the start. This is not for us. We thanked him and bid farewell.
During our travels to Thailand back in 2017, I heard about the durian fruit for the first time. It was typically described as a fruit that you either love or hate. Many restaurants and hotels prohibited It because once it was cracked open, it had a smell that would linger for a very long time. So here we were in Hanoi, on the street market and the opportunity presents itself. Durian-gelato! What better way to explore that taste with one of my favourite foods in the word, ice cream. I mentioned to hubby I wanted to have a taste and left him to it, as I got distracted with a local lady who passed by selling local donuts which I’ve had my eye on for a while. Two tasteful experiences coming up! With a great effort in sign language, I managed to purchase 6 small donuts of various flavours, negotiate and successfully turn back around to continue with the ice cream – taste order. When I turned back to hubby and the ice cream station, I was handed a cone with one whole scoop of durian. Oh dear. I didn’t communicate fast enough that I just wanted to taste it with a spoon before committing to a whole scoop. If you asked me to describe the taste of durian, I’d say…think of a sweet onion. On an ice-cream cone. It took about three or four rounds to get used to the taste, and then managed to finish it. However, never in my life have I been so scared to hiccup or burp.
If we are ever lucky enough to come back, we would love to have booked the Water Puppet Show which took place in the Puppet theater in Old Quarter. The tickets were sold out by the time we tried to purchase tickets.
From Hanoi we travelled to Hội An by plane. There are a couple of options available to travel the length of the country, but flights were the quickest and an affordable option.
