Hanoi - So long Vietnam 👋

Typhoon Yagi hit North Vietnam just over 2 weeks ago. We'd messaged ahead to our hostel in Hanoi to check we should still travel there and got the response that the Vietnamese capital had returned to normal. We flew to Haiphong and then got a bus to Hanoi and saw lots of effects of the storm along the way. So many trees down, some of them huge. Upon reaching Hanoi you could tell it was very much business as usual, with just regular newly sawn tree stumps along the streets. 

Our hostel held a free walking tour which we went on the first morning in Hanoi. A lovely lady named Luna took us around the city showing us the highlights and adding useful facts about Vietnam and its culture. We went into the Ngoc Son Temple which is on lake Hoan Kiem. Inside they have 2 mummified Yangtze giant softshell turtles which used to live in the lake, one of them until 2016, and very weirdly they have their penis' displayed separately next to them, no longer connected. 

Whilst by the lake we saw numerous people tip bags full of live fish into the water. Luna explained how locals will buy animals at markets to release, we later saw a woman with a box a birds. It's a Buddist practice believed to generate good karma, however realising animals into the wild not knowing where they've come from is obviously problematic. Luna also explained she wasn't a fan as it's at a point where these animals are just on a cycle of being caught and released to be sold at markets. 

We walked around the French Quarter which is so different to the other parts of Hanoi with wide roads and large pavements. We went to St Joseph's Catherdral, also known just as Hanoi Catherdral which isn't what you expect to find around the corner in Vietnam.

After, we stopped at coffee shop with those we'd spent the morning with, you could write on a post-it note and stick it to the wall. There were lots of lovely people on the tour including a couple from Wolverhampton and another from Nottingham, so you're never too fat from home! 

Later that day we went to a water puppet show which is on all the lists of must-do's in Hanoi. It was great fun, there's a live band playing music which accompanies the stories being told by the puppets in the water. I loved it. 

The hostel had free beer between 7-8pm so we spent the evening actually socialising, which isn't something we're brilliant at. We chatted and played cards with a someone we'd been on the walking tour with then headed out on the pub crawl which the hostel runs. It started at another hostel where there were more people we'd met earlier in the day which was nice. They had a rooftop bar so it was a good place to have a few drinks. 

After a bit of a slower morning because of the late night we went out to the Temple of Literature first built in 1070, it was Vietnam's first national university. It's a lovely green space with ponds and trees, very calm and tranquil. 

We carried on towards the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh but decided to give it a miss, there were large queues in the intense sunshine. Instead we went to the famous train street, no trains scheduled unfortunately, but you can just walk up and down the tracks, in fact you have to if you want to visit any of the numerous cafes that line the railway line. 

We walked back into the city and visited a Harry Potter themed cafe, a bit random but why not! We both had a butter beer, mine was frozen and Matts was actually beer. I found mine a little too sweet actually. Hanoi is a great place to walk around and just take everything in, but we found it very tiring as you have to be so alert and constantly dodging scooters, cars, and people. So we were happy to return early after walking all day and get ready to leave for Bali in the morning. 

Lots of love, 

Lisa and Matt 💕 

(We didn't take any selfies in Hanoi, so just 👋)