In case you were wondering – I did do more than trying to cross the street during my week in Hanoi.
I stayed at the Hanoi Backpackers’ Hostel at Ma May in the Old Quarter – it’s run by a couple of Australian guys, and they’ve got another one in Hanoi and one in Hue, a smaller Vietnamese city further south. The one at Ma May has 5 floors, with a bar downstairs and a lounge on the top floor. Free wifi and a light breakfast. All in all, a pretty cool place to start out, with friendly staff and lots of information on transport and other useful stuff. It’s also a nice place to hang out and relax before the jet lag wears off and the culture shock diminishes. They also do a free guided walking tour every morning at 10, which is a great way to meet other travelers and to get to know the city a bit better (including the art of getting across the street alive). Our guide took us to a local temple, the main market, and introduced us to some local street food. Like duck fetus, with a tad of salt – how’s that for breakfast?
The Old Quarter area of Hanoi is, according to Lonely Planet, the city’s ‘historic heart’. Its streets are narrow and chaotic, and even though it might be hard to get a good look at the surroundings while having to jump away from honking mopeds every five seconds, it’s worth it to raise your glance – there’s a lot of old architecture hiding among the chaos. Another curious thing are all the gigantic trees along the busiest roads, crammed in between houses and power lines nearly touching the ground. I saw some guys from a power company trying to sort something out one day, and I really sympathized with them – it’s got to take them ages to figure out which line to fix, they’re all tangled up. There are more than 50 streets in today’s Old Quarter (as opposed to the original 36), and most of them are called Hang (‘merchandise’) followed by the name of the product that was originally sold on that street – like ca (‘fish’) and gai (‘silk’).
Exploring the area on foot is the best way, though this does mean walking in the street. The sidewalks are usually packed with mopeds or people eating, either sitting on the ground or at small plastic tables. Even so, walking among the traffic is fine once you get the hang of it, and it’s easy to explore the whole city like this as the center’s not very big.
Hanoi served as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 to 1953, and was named the capital of Vietnam in 1945. It was heavily bombed during the Vietnam War. In the Army Museum they have many weapons on display, including French and American aircrafts that were shot down by the Vietnamese. There are also a lot of very good photographs. If you feel like doing some exercise you can climb up the Flag Tower – it gives a pretty good view of the museum and the surrounding area. Also, if you’d like a picture with one of the soldiers parading the grounds, you don’t have to ask twice. Not even once, actually – one will multiply into fifty in about two seconds if you hang around with a camera in your hand (I have a feeling this might only apply to girls, though..).
I decided to spend one day outside the city, and went on a day trip to the Ninh Binh region. It’s about 2 hours south of the city. First, we went to Hoa Lu – the first capital of Vietnam. Mountains surround the temples, which makes up for the fact that most of the old citadel is in ruins. Even though our guide for the day seemed more intent on making jokes that created oh-so-many awkward silences and pretending that every girl on the bus was his girlfriend than actually telling us about the place, it was a fun day. After Hoa Lu we went on to Tam Coc – a tiny village surrounded by huge limestone formations and rice paddies. Very beautiful. We went on a rowboat ride down the Ngo Dong River, through three caves: Hang Ca, Hang Giua, and Hang Cuoi. There were lots of other people doing the same thing – its a popular tourist destination. But it was still cool. Some of the local rowers used their feet to propel the oars – I wonder how many times a day they go back and forth, every ride takes about 2 hours. Making conversation with them was difficult as their English was limited, and my Vietnamese is nonexistent.
Back in Hanoi, I set out to see one of the places I’d read about before arriving – the Temple of Literature. It’s an enormous complex, founded in 1070 by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong, dedicated to Confucius. It’s 5000 dong to enter – that’s about 25 cents. The first university of Vietnam was established here, and since 1442 students from all over the nation could be accepted to study literature and poetry. It really is a beautiful place – very peaceful and the architecture’s stunning! And it’s a nice break from the hustle and bustle of The streets of Hanoi.
Across the street from the Temple of Literature is KOTO (Know One Teach One). This cafe/restaurant/bar is the result of a very successful not-for-profit project, founded by Jimmy Pham. The project provides career training and guidance to disadvantaged kids, and, unfortunately, Hanoi has a lot of them. But with all the staff here being graduates of the training program (and all doing a very good job), this project provides hope that things can get better. And the food is absolutely amazing!!
Those who are in Vietnam still will soon celebrate Tet – the lunar new year. This year is the year of the dragon, and I saw lots of people preparing for it while I was there, decorating shops and streets with flowers. Maybe I’ll go back one day and celebrate with them, but now I’ve moved on to Cambodia where I’ll spend the coming weeks. I actually didn’t think I’d make it to the Hanoi airport alive yesterday – it was early and dark, but the streets were still full of cars, mopeds, cyclists, and pedestrians. And the taxi driver seemed intent on risking his life every five seconds. I still don’t understand how we didn’t crash. But we made it, and that was the end of my stay in Vietnam for now.
Best of luck to everyone in the dragon year – chuc mung nam moi !
the perks of travel 