I have had two full days of exploring and wandering around Old Quarter of Hanoi with a map (and iPhone compass), and have learned a vast amount about Vietnam's culture in general and the history behind Hanoi. So I will describe my explorations chronologically (because that's how my brain works).
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| Map of Hanoi, "A" being our hostel |
8/12/2012---
We arrived at the Hanoi airport around 10 AM after a quick 2 hour flight from Bangkok, most of which was spent sleeping. In order to enter Vietnam, you must obtain a visa, and we quickly learned it is best to pay in exact change, in US dollars. I handed the woman processing visas 1000 baht (more than enough to cover the $25 fee), and she demanded 2 million baht! I looked at her like she was crazy and asked her again, and she asked for 2 million. So I gave her some of the dong (Vietnam currency) I had, and she took a hefty amount and refused to give me change. Needless to say, I was definitely ripped off but moving on to bigger and better things...We checked into Hanoi Backpackers Hostel which went above and beyond my expectations for my first stay in a hostel (and I would recommend to anyone traveling in Hanoi). It is a new building and everything is surprisingly clean- the bathrooms are cleaned every two hours! They even have lockers below each bed and provide keys to lock up all of your things. We grabbed a map from the hostel and paired with our SE Asia Lonely Planet (for travelers on a shoestring budget), we set out to find...well we didn't really know what.We ended up stumbling upon Memorial House, a restored merchant's house built at the end of the 19th century and restored with traditional Vietnamese handicrafts and trinkets you can pick up while wandering around.
I would like to preface this next section by saying we literally stumbled into everything we found that day- wandering up and down the general street we thought it was on until MK or I went "Oh! I think that could be it....". Our next destination was a Chinese-styled temple simply named after its address, 28 Hang Buom (forgive me for the foursquare link, it's the only one I could find). This was a restored Chinese temple, full of red and gold architecture, incense (which makes me sneeze like crazy), gifts to the spirits, and a flowery-tasting tea for all who visit and is supposed to make your skin beautiful.
Our next stop was the Bach Mah temple, which is actually the oldest temple in Hanoi. Again a Chinese-style temple with lots of red and gold. I actually just learned more about it in the link I posted than when we were there...all of the signs here seem to be in Vietnamese or French.
We rounded up the northern end of the Old Quarter of Hanoi by visiting the Dong Xuan market, Hanoi's biggest market. However, after multiple trips to the JJ Market (weekend market) in Bangkok this was nothing in comparison. It is a three-story open-air building filled with mostly rolls of fabric and random t-shirts (none of which were appealing to MK or I)...so we left quickly.
On our way back to the hostel we went to the Old City Gate which was basically a super busy intersection of motorbikes and cars, and a cool fortress-looking gate.
After a super busy day we ended the night with walking around Hoan Kiem Lake, the somewhat center of Old Quarter and got some delicious ice cream from a local vendor.
8/15/2012---
Another tourist-packed day of walking around Hanoi. We started the day with a free walking tour through the hostel and experienced another market but for food. Our tour guide told us all Vietnamese people come here each morning to get food to cook for the day. Food sold ranged from dried shrimp (very chewy, and gross), huge fish still flopping around in buckets, various tropical fruits (I tried rambutans, which are super gelatinous on the inside and sweet), huge slabs of beef being cut right there, and various other local varieties.
Our tour ended on the lake and MK and I chose to continue searching Hanoi for monuments and temples as we were right next to the Ngoc Son temples built on an island in the middle of the lake, built in the 18th century centered around a giant turtle that weighed 250 kg, and was 2.1 m wide/1.2 m long! The temple was surrounded by gorgeous willows and small trees in pots that looked just like mandrakes (get that HP reference anyone?).
On our way to Fanny's (explanation later) we walked by what looked like a temple and decided to drop in- it ended up being a monument to King Le Thai To, which had architecture similar to Chinese temples wed seen and pretty gardens surrounding it.
Our next stopping point? Fanny's ice cream- previously located on Hoan Kiem lake and relocated completely across the city, which we didn't find out until a 15 min walk later. MK and I both ordered off the kids menu, I got a delicious scoop of ice cream shaped like Mickey Mouse on top of a fruit salad (mango, watermelon, and dragonfruit)- delicious!
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| MK and I's ice cream! Pinocchio and Mickey Mouse |
Right down the street from Fanny's was the Hoa Loa prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton" by American POW's. It was eerie and informative, formed by the French to hold Vietnamese political prisoners and later used to hold American pilots shot down. We did notice some bias towards treatment towards the Americans, only showing pictures of the Americans playing basketball and celebrating Christmas and going so far as to say Americans were 'lucky to have been prisoners in Vietnam.' Strangely enough, this was where John McCain was tortured to the point he can no longer raise his arms above his head and attempted suicide twice...regardless it was cool (and creepy) to see the cells and read ab the prison's transformation.
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| John McCain's gear |
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| "Prisoners in the dungeon" |
On a lighter note, we went in search of St. Josephs Cathedral, which sadly had a gate around it but was gorgeous and comforting in the midst of temples galore.
At this point it was 2 pm, well past lunch time. Finding a woman making Banh Mi on a street we asked for two and when she said "everything?" we figured why not? Banh Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich served in a large fresh baguette. We got egg with cucumber, tomatoes, Laughing Cow cheese (apparently necessary for the dish according to our research later), chili, and onion. It was probably the best sandwich I've ever had in my life, slight exaggeration implied.
Heading back to the hostel to journal, blog, and rest our feet, a few hours later we headed out again. Our final task of the day- find Pho, a restaurant serving exactly that. Pho is a Vietnamese dish of traditionally rice noodles and beef in a broth. I added a dash of chili sauce to mine which proved to be much spicier than the sweet yet spicy Thai Sriracha sauce. It was a delicious and comforting meal to the end of a long day, as we headed to the train station to catch the overnight train to Dong Hoi...
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