We flew from Luang Prabang, Laos to Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam a couple of days ago. It took 55 minutes and I only had one minor breakdown during turbulence. Not bad going considering my track record of near death experiences on this trip so far.
Hanoi airport felt like an alien land after our time in laid back Laos. It had all the tell tale signs of a capital city; bright lights, modern architecture and more Samsung adverts than you could shake your iPhone at.
The hostel we booked had arranged for a driver to collect us from the airport, who (much to my surprise) was waiting at arrivals holding a sign for ‘Amen Davidson’ …close enough. Despite some dodgy lane straddling and cutting up of lorries and bikes, we arrived at our hostel – which is situated in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, within half an hour.
And what a pleasant surprise it was. The hostel is brand new, spotless and complete with amazing showers, games room, chill out room, roof garden, cafe and bar. Standing in reception with all my bags, surrounded by likeminded people going about their evening in such a relaxed way, I felt sudden nostalgia for my time spent in University halls.
The staff who checked us in spoke fluent English and recommended where to eat and what trips to book – we decided to think about that the following day once we were settled. We made our way up to the 5th floor where the electronic key card granted us access to our room; we dumped our stuff and headed straight out to see what Hanoi had to offer.
I’ve been trying to think of how to describe this city but it’s so hard to put into words. The streets are saturated with people, mopeds, rickshaws and little old ladies trying to sell you doughnuts and limes. I literally didn’t know where to look, the layout of the streets is like a maze and you’re never really sure if you’ve gone full circle or not – but it doesn’t even matter. No two streets look the same and to be honest, there’s so much going on that I wouldn’t have even realised if I had walked the same street over and over again. You notice something new every time.
We wandered around taking it all in for a while. Every inch of every building is used for something different; the first floor is usually some kind of shop, market or restaurant, the next floor might be a bar, and then the next few floors up could be a hotel, hostel or home. The buildings are all tall and thin and each one is unique. We marvelled at the intricacy of the architecture and how the locals utilised every inch of space they have for their businesses and homes. Even every inch of the pavement is lined with street food stalls complete with make shift stoves, surrounded by tiny stools and tables which are all of a few inches above the ground.
The sheer amount of people makes London looks like a Kentish cul de sac and the vibrancy of the city is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. We arrived on a random Thursday night but the atmosphere was as though it were New Years Eve. We found a little bar, ordered noodles and a drink and watched on as the wonderful chaos continued to grow. The bars and clubs got louder as the night drew on, and I started to feel like I was in the film ‘The Hangover’ – a random tiger strutting down the street would not have looked out of place at all. It was incredible.
The next day we decided to retrace our steps and see what the city was like in the day compared to night. It was just as hectic, but less so due to partying locals, and more due to the tangled web of motorbikes driving on both the roads and the pavements. We quickly realised that red and green traffic lights mean nothing and that you kind of just have to brave it and walk across the roads with conviction – most people swerve out of your way.
The markets looked so different in the day too, and we started to realise there were two types:
1 . Markets where you could buy clothes, book a flight, get your laundry done and eat street food… I would assume that anywhere which can book you a flight while washing your pants and cooking you dinner is probably not the most legit.
2 . Markets with more of a theme. There were literally entire streets lined with markets selling the exact same products. For example, we walked down a road where every single stall sold shoes, then one where every stall sold bags, the next electronics and so on.
James treated himself to a ‘genuine fake’ North Face coat off a market stall on what we decided was called ‘coat street’. We haggled and bagged a bargain.
There’s also a lot of history in the city so we took advantage of the cooler weather and went into the Ho Chi Minh museum – which is pretty much a shrine to the late president of Vietnam. I was ready to learn and absorb everything about Vietnam’s history, but the staff at the museum rushed everyone around and we couldn’t even decipher when Ho Chin Minh was born and when he passed – which I thought was a pretty vital piece of information in a museum about him. So we ended up googling information ourselves over a post museum Starbucks (yes we came all the way to Asia and found a Starbucks).
Tomorrow we head to Halong Bay, its an absolute must see in Vietnam and I can’t wait. We have booked a 3 day, 2 night excursion through our hostel; we will spend one night on a boat in the bay and one night in a waterside bungalow on an island called Cat Ba. The itinerary for all three days sounds absolutely amazing.
The constant dodging of vehicles in Hanoi is beginning to drain me, so the idea of exploring such a natural wonder with the only traffic being the odd canoe, sounds pretty fantastic to me.
I’ll let you know how it is!
Amy x
amyyabroad 