To everyone’s suprise, including my own, I arrived in Vietnam without my chief navigator Grace, completely on my own with no issues. Well almost, in my worry about being able to get my COVID test done in time and having heard stories of people running from hospital to hospital trying to get one and having to wait in long lines, I got to a testing center as early as possible. You have to have the test up to 24hrs before your flight and my planning had gone so well I didn’t face any testing issues and got it done in record time, meaning the time on my test was 24hrs and 20 seconds before my flight. Thankfully a nice member of staff let it slide on the promise that if I was caught I would conveniently forget who had entered the times onto the system wrong for me.
On entry into Vietnam I did have a border control man ask if my passport photo was really me, which is never a good sign, but he let me in with just the comment ‘you fresh in photo, you very very old now’ but otherwise the journey was uneventful.
I had three days in Hanoi on my own before the tour started as I wanted to explore the city before the tour left. I booked my self into a 5* luxury hotel in Hanoi for the grand total of £11 a night, fancy I know! It was absolutely beautiful and a welcome calm break from the chaos outside. If I thought traffic in Asia was crazy this far, it was nothing compared to Hanoi. There were cars and scooters everywhere on the roads and pavements, well to be honest the pavements are more scooter car parks than pavements at this point. But nowhere is safe from vehicles, they go the wrong way down roads, onto pavements, into restaurants and houses. Traffic lights and road signs are ignored completely. I can’t even explain the pure volume of bikes everywhere.
The traffic never stops, if you want to cross a road you have to just step out into traffic and the vehicles will manoeuvre around you. It’s important to move in a slow predictable manner, no matter how scared you get, you can’t stop, slow down or speed up or step backwards or you’ll end up mushed. I met a few fellow tourists who advised me to not even look at the road, you just walk forward at a pace staring at something off in the horizon, I was never quite that brave. For the first few days I planned every route to a tourist attraction with as few road crossings as possible, even if it added ten minutes to a journey. After a while of holding your nerve and making crossings, you eventually get used to it.
My first full day in Hanoi was pretty jam packed, there is so much to do in the city and I wanted to see as much as possible. My first stop was to the Hoan Kiem Lake a beautiful lake in the historical centre of the city, it’s name means ‘Lake of the returned sword’ according to legend after defeating the Ming China, the Vietnamese emperor was boating on the lake when a Golden Turtle God surfaced and asked for his magic sword, that had been given to the emperor to defeat Ming China.
I had a pleasant walk around the lake and then paid the entrance fee to visit the small island on the lake containing Ngoc Son Temple, a temple dedicated to a general that defeated the Mongols in the 13th century.
Next I visited a museum about women in Vietnam it was super interesting, I learned a lot about marriage, childbirth and work as a women through the years in Vietnam. There are also many communities in Vietnam where the roles around marriage are reversed, the husband takes the wife’s name, and the wife’s family is paid a dowry and the husband moves in with the wife’s family. I also saw how Vietnam were keen to recruit women into the army and about some of their more famous female generals and their accomplishments.
Next up I headed to the Imperial Citadel, on my way there I walked to get there I passed through a park where lots of old men were playing a card game I’d never seen before with lots of long cards, they saw me watching and tried to explain how to play but unfortunately, knowing no Vietnamese, their explanation wasn’t super helpful. After watching for a while I carried on my journey also passing a grand and unexpected statue of Lennin.
I decided to make a pitstop for a late lunch on the way to the Citadel, so far my experience of food in Vietnam had been a late night cheese pizza from the only place open when I arrived late at night. I chose a cheese pizza as I figured this would be the safest most edible option. I was edible but that’s about as much as could be said for it… It was a regular pizza base but the cheese was multiple slices of those cheap American burger slice cheeses. Thankfully this time I had more choice, and I opted for some ‘Banh Mi’ a fusion of Vietnamese and french food from when Vietnam was under french rule. It’s basically a baguette with paté topped with spicy Vietnamese meat filling. It’s absolutely delicious, (I’m writing this six months later, still salivating at the memory!).
The Imperial Citadel was also a very interesting place it’s a UNESCO site built in 1010 and has been a key site in many parts of Vietnamese history. It was the centre of regional political power for almost 13 centuries without interruption. More recently the Citadel was used by the Imperial Japanese Army to imprison over 4000 French colonial soldiers captured in March 1945. During 1954, when the Vietnamese Army took over Hanoi, the Citadel became the headquarter of the Ministry of Defense.
It was very interesting and varied history ancient political halls mixed with underground war bunkers, I spent a lot of time there wandering about and reading about the long and varied history. After I had seen the buildings and museums I went to look at the archaeological site, and saw them excavating the soil which was interesting and a nice cool break in the shade, I stayed watching for a little while until I realised the museum was closing.
After a jam packed day I headed back to the hotel and relaxed in the last of the days sunlight by the rooftop pool, where I met two English girls who were about to start a tour of Vietnam the next day and a Vietnamese guy in his early 20’s called Cao. Cao was originally from Hanoi and had moved to another city to start a business but was back here for work. The four of us shared a dinner and drinks at the hotel it was a nice evening, afterwards we wished the girls good luck as they were heading of on their tour the following day.
The next day I continued on my tourist trail, first heading to the Temple of Literature which was founded in 1070, as a temple to worship the Chinese philosopher Confucius. In 1076, the Imperial Academy was established on the site as a royal school for only members of the elite such as princes, nobles, and bureaucrats, it was open for about 700 years and educated hundreds of well-known scholars and mandarins.
It was really cool to look around and I visited on an interesting day as there were actually some students graduating and having a ceremony. They were dressed in all white and each approached a figure who gave them a piece of paper while everyone chanted a short phrase and then he rang an huge gong. No idea whit it all symbolised but they seemed pleased.
My next stop was a prison, after another Bahn mi lunch if course… The prison was used first by the french to hold Vietnamese prisoners during their occupation and then by the Vietnamese to hold American soldiers during the US-Vitnamese war, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton by US soldiers. During both periods the prison was a horrible place to be held, with terrible conditions and torture happening on a regular basis. It was actually the prison John Macain was kept in. Not that you would know from the information within the prison, it was all photos of smiling US soldiers playing volleyball, but Vietnam is still very communist and there is a very pro-government no-negative rhetoric, a lot of museum visits had to be accompanied by reading between the lines or reading Wikipedia afterwards. But the museum was still super interesting. I was made to wear a brown smock dress, that covered 90% of my body on entry. It very hot but understandable, as the dress I was wearing didn’t cover my shoulders and it is a place where you need to show respect. I had no issue with this but it did make me laugh that the rule apparently didn’t apply to locals, who were allowed in in miniskirts and tube tops.
The museum it self was interesting with surviver stories about what life was like in the prison during its various uses and with models and mock ups of how prisoners were kept and shackled. It was an interesting visit.
I was exhausted after sweating out in my brown smock so decided to head back to the hotel. I’d had a busy two days and it’s hard to explain why, but just being in Hanoi solo is quite exhausting, it’s such a busy city and you have to be constantly aware of vehicles everywhere and it’s so hot and noisy so the hotel pool was a welcome relief, honestly the best £12 I’d spent! I saw Cao again around the pool and was telling him what I’d been up to and he pointed out a few suggestions of more things to do the following day, he used to be a tour guide in the city as a student and offered to take me out to some local food spots for dinner so I could try some local food other than bahn mi.
It was a super fun evening and honestly so nice to have someone else navigate, we all know that’s not my strong point! He took me to a night market/festival in square in the city that was a celebration for the start of the south east Asian games, with I think was basically like an mini Olympics for east Asia. After we had grabbed some drinks and had a look around we then headed to get some dinner at a local Pho restaurant. The place was super busy and there was no English anywhere so I just let Cao choose what one we had. Pho is the national dish if Vietnam and is a broth with meat, herbs and rice noodle. It was really tasty! Cao joked that he had to let me taste the safe food as tourists never want to try actual food that locals love, like snails. So not one to be outdone, I agreed to go a try snails from a street vender nearby, Cao bought us a small portion of small snails. He told me that they are farmed and come in small and large size. The snails came in a big bowl with a small dipping sauce on the side and I made Cao show me how to use a fork to pull the snail out of its shell and how to tear of its stomach before eating it. He didn’t believe I was going to actually do it up until it was in my mouth, and was shocked for ages afterwards that I had actually eaten it and kept telling any locals who would listen, who all also seemed to be impressed. I’ve never impressed so many with so little effort before! The snails were fine, a little chewy but not particularly gross and they just tasted like whatever you had dipped them in.
Our next stop was much more touristy, the famous beer street which is just like it sounds a street full of people selling beer, the road is lined with bars and the street itself is full of tiny stools the Vietnamese sit on for outside dining, a bit taller than a step. Cao found it funny that I was more grossed out trying his local beer than the snails. Can confirm I still hate beer even the Vietnamese variety.
Our last stop on the way home was into a local art exhibition, which was an interesting mix of paintings that looked like they had been done my an amazing artist next to one that looked like it had been done by a child. But it was an interesting look into the day to day sights of locals and seeing the city through there eyes. All in all it was a really fun evening and when Cao offered to take me to a few other tourist sights the next day I happily accepted.
I lucked out meeting Cao, not only did I learn loads of interesting stuff about his life and growing up in Vietnam and got to get free tours from a former tour guide I also got the use of his bike. The main tourist attractions I had yet to visit were those which weren’t within walking distance as I wasn’t super keen on renting a bike and taking my life into my hands. But Cao had his bike with him as drove us to the tourist attractions the next day. That was an experience in itself, being in a river of bikes, luckily Cao was a good driver and we arrived at all of our stops unharmed and with no close calls and after I stopped fearing for my life and realised we were going to be okay, I actually kind of enjoyed the rides.
Our first stop was the Ho Chin Min mausoleum, where the preserved body if Vietnamese leader Ho Chin Min has been stored. You have to wait in qué for several hours to walk past his body and no photos are allowed. We also got a look around the area where he used to live and got to look at the building and his cars and house. It was interesting to look around and he is obviously deeply loved by the Vietnamese.
For lunch we went to another local restaurant where I was the only non-local there. This time it was a fragrant soup with meatballs and cold noodles that you dipped into the soup before eating. Again very tasty!
After lunch we visited the famous street with the train track in the middle. Super interesting to see, the shops all have their wares on wheels and when a train comes down the narrow street, they pull all their items in and everyone in the street has to find a shop of doorway to stand in to avain getting squished by a train.
After train street Cao took us on a quick ride around west lake, another large lake in Hanoi and we stopped to try some fruit teas. It was a nice way to end the day. After this we picked up my bag and Cao dropped me off at the hotel my Intrepid your would start at and we said our good-byes. Cao had been a lovely tour guide and I saw so much I wouldn’t have done on my own, I was super grateful to have met him.
Once I had checked in at the hotel and unpacked I went down to the welcome meeting for my tour and met everyone and then our tour guide took us back to beer street to grab some drinks and get to know each other as we would be spending the next few weeks together.
So many more stories to come! Will tell you all about it soon, lots of love Alice x