HANOI – END OF THE LINE

ARRIVAL IN HANOI

We arrived in Hanoi, after journeying from Cat Ba Island and checked into the Holiday Emerald Hotel.

A fantastic place to stay. Right in the heart of old town. Incredibly friendly staff and the best inclusive breakfast I’ve had on the whole of my trip.

I was so happy with it, in fact, that I stayed here for 9 days!

After the epic Vietnam journey, it was nice to end the trip and have a base in one place for a while, without having to think about packing the bags every other day.

 

WANDERING THE STREETS

Walking around Hanoi was a real feast for the senses. It was similar to Ho Chi Minh city in the sense that there were thousands of scooters blaring past, but it didn’t have quite the same sleazy and busy feeling.

From what I saw it felt like there was more culture and history within this city and I instantly preferred it to Ho Chi Minh.

There was a real mix of eateries here. Any cuisine you want and pretty much any price point accounted for. We had some incredible meals here, none more so than the awesome Duong restaurant. If you’re in Hanoi you have to give this place a try!

The street food was varied and excellent value and you need to give some of the bahn mi stands a try – specifically a place called Bahn Mi 25.

One thing that did start to annoy me though, was that, in the old town particularly, there is almost no pavement space to walk on. The pavements are lined with scooters in every space that they could squeeze into. This did start to wear a bit thin.

 

HANOI OLD RAILWAY LINE

Running through the centre of town is an old railway line. It’s still operational (even though it looked like a relic), and trains pass through twice a day.

There’s no warning and no barriers. The train just hurtles through twice a day, blaring a horn and anyone on the tracks needs to jump for their lives. Bizarrely, there’s houses and shops lining the track and I can’t imagine how it must be raising kids there!!

I didn’t know what time the trains came through, but it was a great spot for a couple of photos, so I got involved.

 

FRENCH INFLUENCE

As Vietnam was colonised by the French in the 1800s, there is a lot of French influence to be found. The love of baguettes is the obvious one, but the architecture and religious impact is also there to be seen.

One of the prime examples of this, was the stunning St Joseph Cathedral, which stood proudly overlooking one of the main squares in the old town.

 

BITS & BOBS

Here’s some other random shots, from walking around the town, which hopefully help sum up the look and feel of this amazing city:

 

NIGHT MARKET

As with most Asian cities that I’d visited, there was a massive night market that runs the length of Hang Dao road.

It was pretty similar to most other markets I’d seen. Packed streets of tourists and locals. Street food stalls. Counterfeit clothing, shoes and bags. Arts and crafts.

When in town it’s certainly worth having a walk down, to get a feel for the vibrancy of the city.

 

HOA LO PRISON

While in Hanoi, we visited Hoa Lo Prison. This prison was originally built by the French, in 1896, after colonising Vietnam. The French destroyed a number of pagodas within the town, to make way for the prison, where they would then detain Vietnamese revolutionary soldiers.

In horrendous conditions, I might add; as these reconstructions depicted:

During the Vietnam war, the Vietnamese would keep American prisoners of war here.

It was interesting to see the propaganda within the prison and I took some of it with a pinch of salt. There was a lot of attention paid to letting tourists know that the Vietnamese were treated terribly by the French, but that they treated the Americans amazingly well.

This was shown through archived photos of Americans getting sound medical care.

And pictures of how much the Americans were enjoying Christmas day. Even this picture that one of the soldiers had drawn, was shown.

I’m not too sure about all of this, but I understand why the Vietnamese would want to come off favourably in this situation.

It was a really interesting visit to the prison, overall, and I’d recommend visiting to get more of an insight into Vietnamese history. The prison that remains is apparently only one fifth of the size that it was originally, so it must have been really quite something back in the day.

Here’s a few more photos from the visit:

NGOC SON TEMPLE

In the centre of Hanoi, there is a large lake, named Ho Hoan Kiem. Ngoc Son Temple is based in the centre of the lake, on a man-made island, which is reached by crossing a bridge.

I didn’t visit the temple specifically, but I did take some photos from the outskirts.

At the other end of the lake, is a monument known as ‘Turtle Tower’. It can be seen in the distance in this photo of Ho Hoan Kiem lake.

WATER PUPPET SHOW

Just across from the lake is a theatre, where they have a show, which runs every hour or so.

If you look for things to do in Hanoi, this always pops up as a suggested tourist highlight.

I don’t know why.

It’s bonkers.

It’s exactly what it says though. It’s a puppet show. On the water.

The tradition of this apparently dates back to the 11th century when villagers, working in the flooded rice paddy fields, would use puppets to entertain, while standing up to their waists in the water.

In the theatre there’s a group of musicians and singers on the left hand side of the stage (as you view it). These guys play out the music and vocals of the puppets, which are controlled behind a curtain by a group of puppeteers.

It’s all very well synchronised and choreographed, to be honest, but I had absolutely no idea what was going on, or why it would appeal to tourists.

The people who perform this must get sick of it. The same 45 minute performance at least 5 times a day.

Apparently the show depicts the roots of Vietnam’s folk tales, legends and history and the fact that water has been such a massive dependence for them in terms of their agriculture industries.

GOODBYE VIETNAM

Vietnam, it’s been incredible, but my time here was done, after nearly 8 weeks!

I’ll have such fond memories of my time here and hopefully some day I’ll be back.

For now though, I was heading home for a couple of weeks, to catch up with family and hit the Glastonbury festival.

I’d be coming back out though and the dice will keep on rolling.

Next stop Malaysia!

Keep reading and let me know in the comments of any feedback or if there’s anything you’d like to see in the blog!