5- Hanoi, Vietnam aka the City That Never Sleeps

Friday, January 28th: Hanoi, Vietnam

• Once again, Quinn and I were up early on a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam and into a new city by 8am.  The flight was very easy and the visa process even easier.
• On our taxi ride into the city, we were both not so happy with what we saw.  Vietnam was much colder (around 40 degrees), dark, and seemed dreary.  We arrived at our hostel/hotel, "Little Hanoi Hostel" and all of our qualms dissapeared.  We were greeted by Chien, who first told us to put down our stuff and come eat our breakfast.  Again, we paid $20 for a private room, bathroom, breakfast, free internet, free snacks, tea/coffee always, and great service.  You can not find this at any 5-star hotel in the states.  Chien got us some omelettes and showed us some of the major things to see in Hanoi that day.  We found our room, put on all of the warm clothes we had brought, and headed out.

Our room at Little Hanoi Hostel.

• Our first stop was the Temple of Literature.  It sounded much more impressive in the guidebook, but it was still worth checking out.  There were pretty pavilions dedicated to scholars of Confuscious.  Interestingly, the cute little ticket lady tried to scam us out of money, so we knew we had to be on our toes in Vietnam. 

Entrance to the temple.

• After the temple, we headed to the Museum of Ethnology.  We took a cab there that also tried to scam us by running up the meter.  We noticed, called him out on it, and got a set price for the ride (Traveling in countries of haggling and scams can get tiring).  Overall, I really liked the museum because it showcased the various cultures in Vietnam and the best part was behind the museum was an old village where an indigenous tribe used to live.  You were even able to climb inside their handmade straw homes, which I really liked.

Me sitting on one of the indigenous huts.

These were apparently to guarantee long life.

• The rest of the day was spent observing life in Hanoi.  This turned out to be the best thing to do here.  The old part of the city is developed all around the Hoan Kiem Lake and is a great place to people watch.  
• The amount of motor scooter traffic in Hanoi is incredible.  It is just motorbike after motorbike sometimes carrying up to 4 people and groceries.  The amount of stuff people would put on the back of their motorbike was incredible.  It was about to be Lunar New Year in Vietnam and for the holiday everyone has an equivalent to our Christmas tree, so all of the motorists had full, huge trees tied to the back of their bikes.  It was amazing to watch and hard to believe that there aren't more accidents.  Oh, there are also only about two traffic lights in the entire city.  If you want to cross the street, you have to maintain pace and merge with the traffic.  The motorbikes avoid you as long as you don't confuse them.  This was a very daunting task at first, but it got easier.
• I could sit and watch the motorbikes go by for days, it is quite a sight to see.

Supermarket parking lot.

Normal intersection.

Attempting to cross the street at night.

• As the sun started to set, Quinn and I headed to a traditional water puppet show.  I had read about this in the guide book and although I wasn't thrilled by the idea, it felt like something we should do.
• The show turned out great.  It was only $3 for a one hour show portraying various cultural scenes with water puppets.  To explain a little better, the stage is made of water and then there are puppets on poles that are controlled from behind by people (not sure if that helped at all).  Anyways, it was really interesting to watch how the puppets were controlled and the show was illustrated with live, traditional music (singers and people playing instruments).

Water puppets in action.

• After the show was probably my favorite part of the day, dinner.  We wandered the streets until we found the perfect spot to sit down and eat as the locals do.  Our "restaurant" consisted of about 5 very short, plastic tables and stools on the sidewalk on a moderately busy road.  Our chef had her "kitchen" set up right next to the tables and it consisted of about 5 bowls of ingredients and 1 giant pot.  Quinn held up his hand with the number 2 and before we knew it we had two amazing looking bowls of "Bun Cha".
• "Bun Cha" = a popular Vietnamese dish of Hanoi, made of clear, glass noodles, fresh herbs, some kind of meat (beef, pork), spices, fresh chiles, and fresh lime.  It is delicious!!!  You also can order these large fried wanton like things to add to the soup, I highly recommend that.
• We ate our meal and watched as the motorbikes zoomed by us, happy as could be.

Our chef.

Our dinner spot.

• With our stomachs full, we headed to the night market after dinner.  This night market was especially chaotic, but of course we managed to make a few purchases and get out of there.  We continued to walk around Hanoi, exploring the side streets and admiring the lit up lake.  Hanoi is the best at night.

Hanoi at night along the lake.

On a bridge on Hoan Kiem Lake.

• We headed back to the hotel not too late, as we had a 7am wake up call to head to Ha Long Bay.
• After we returned from our Ha Long Bay trip (next post), we had one more evening in Hanoi.  We did a little shopping and walked around town some more.  Our last meal in Hanoi was on a side street at a family run restaurant serving I am still not sure what.  We sat down at a table and ordered 2 and we got the most amazing chicken rice porridge I have ever had.  The family was making it right there, with the fresh herbs, vegetables, and chicken.  This restuarant would probably not pass health code standards in America, but I loved it.  For two people to eat porridge and have a beer cost about $5 total.  Afterwards, we headed to a "cafe" on the side of the main cathedral in town.  This "cafe" consists of hundreds of plastic stools on the sidewalk and they only serve lemon tea or beer.  We got a couple of beers surrounded by many other Vietnamese enjoying their Sunday night as well.

Our delicious chicken porridge and freshly made spring rolls.

The "cafe".  It is a little hard to see, but all of those people sitting on the sidewalk are sitting at the cafe.

Looking back on my trip, Hanoi is possibly my favorite city.  It had quaint cobblestone streets to explore, amazing street cuisine, a fun night market, extremely friendly people, and a lake right in the middle of everything.  The people of Hanoi amaze me as they are up everyday at 4am working all day, 7 days a week doing all sorts of things and still manage to be very friendly.  I would definitely return to Hanoi to relax and enjoy the Vietnamese culture.