Hanoi

We were met at a very modern and empty Noi Bai airport just outside of Hanoi by our hostel driver who shuttled us to our hotel in the heart of the Old Quarter in downtown Hanoi.  Arriving at our hotel, we were in awe at the total chaos of traffic, shops, powerlines and people overflowing and mingling into one organism.

Our first walk about the neighborhood seemed like a march into a bees nest of humanity but magically we were unscathed.  As we walked down the street, the locals were incessantly offering their wares and services and at the same time scooters and cars were honking at us obsessively.   Adding to the frenzy, nobody was stopping for traffic lights or obeying the few pedestrian crossing signals.   We thought we’d be road kill within minutes, but we soon started to enjoy the challenge of staying alive and treated crossing the road like a real life game of Frogger.   The best technique for crossing the street was to first walk briskly into the middle of the road in front of onrushing traffic and then slowly inch the rest of way while allowing the alpha drivers time to whiz by on both sides of you.  Scary as shit for the first day but then we just got used to it.  To our amazement, we only saw one minor accident and experienced no close call brushes with traffic during our few days in Hanoi.

Traffic in Old Quarter Hanoi

The sidewalks of Hanoi were apparently meant for everything except walking pedestrians.  Packed either with parked scooters or street food vendors, who descend on Hanoi to provide amazingly tasty and cheap ($1-2 per person) meals based on secret family recipes, the sidewalks were just another layer of the city.  Full service slaughter houses, kitchens, and dish washing operations were setup right out in the open.

A high-light of the first couple days in Hanoi was finally finding an open post office and being able to ship home 8 pounds of souvenirs and other non-essential gear.  Included in this package was a half dozen bottles of beach sand that Campbell and Kim had collected from every beach we’ve visited in NZ, AUS, Indo, and Thailand.

One evening we signed up for a street food tour of Hanoi.  Our guide, Thrung, was a 22 year old student who had been leading street food tours for six years.  She led us on an amazing, three hour, back alley tour of many great local Old Quarter eateries.  The first stop was a delicious chicken pho for a warm-up dish.  We then darted off to the next stop for some fried banana cake at a busy intersection.   Now we were picking up the pace and quickly ducked through some alleys to get some Bahn Trang Trun which was a taste sensation of squid, dried beef, and deconstructed salad.  Next on the agenda was a small side room offering a sweet and savory BBQ pork soup known as Bun Cha.   Our food stamina was getting seriously tested but there was more.  The fifth stopped was for authentic fried spring rolls and pillow cake.  It was at this point that Gunnar went into a food coma and jumped on his dada’s back for the rest of the trip.   The sixth course was at another busy street corner for a bean, coconut, and jelly ice drink.   We were over the big meals and now just in the sampling stage of some local street fruit.  It was 10 pm and we were starting to hit the wall, so Thrung had us duck in for egg coffee which became our favorite coffee drink of the trip.  Made with egg, condensed milk, cheese, and other secret ingredients, the establishment that sells this drink is world famous.   The ninth and final stop was for a tasty fruit dessert with sweetened coconut milk.   By now we had covered 6.5 km (Gil’s GPS verified) and were ready relax the rest of the night hoping that our stomachs would handle the unique but with questionable hygiene taste explosion that we had just experienced.  This whole 3 hour / 9 stop meal excursion cost $24/person.

Sampling some Bahn Trang Trun

Trying Bun C

Other high-lights of Hanoi were Gil’s early morning runs around the city.  He quickly found that thousands of local residents descend on the local parks in town at 6:00 am every morning to exercise.  There were hordes of people playing soccer, badminton, and many other unrecognized sports.  Some groups were doing Ti Chi, Yoga, or ball room dancing.  Then there were the rest of the crowd who were just walking or jogging.  It was a pretty cool scene.  On the advice from our friends Rob and Jen, we spent an enjoyable hour at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater, which was a captivating demonstration of the traditional music and art.

The Water Puppet Theater

After a few days in Hanoi we were ready to get out of the big town and head for a three day homestay and cruise around the waters of Ha Long Bay – it was time to get rural again.