Hanoi, Vietnam
Hanoi has instantly become one of my favorite places and I will definitely be back! The city is exploding with excitement: jam-packed streets, amazing food and welcoming people. When I say jam-packed streets, it doesn’t exactly cover the chaos that is Hanoi’s city streets. Seriously, there are no rules to the roads and if you intend to cross you have to do so with tact, haste and without hesitation. Thank GOD I had john to shield me. Can you imagine the headlines? “24 Year Old American Girl Dies From Scooter Collision”. Thankfully, I didn’t die and I’m here writing about my five highlights from the trip:
1. City Tour: It was our first day in Hanoi and our hostel offered a free walking tour. John and I decided to join since it would be an easy way to get to know the city and hit some of the main attractions. On our tour, we went to the shopping market, which is a 3-story indoor warehouse that sells everything. John and I were extremely overwhelmed so we didn’t end up buying anything. After the market, we went to a popular temple in the city. Our tour guide told that us that 70% of Vietnamese people don’t practice a religion. Instead, they worship their ancestors and simply pray for good health, prosperity etc. It was interesting to learn that most Vietnamese people don’t associate themselves with any religion. Next stop on the tour was Hoan Kiem Bridge, which is in the central lake in the middle of the city.
The bridge was really beautiful but super packed since it was the middle of the day. John and I went to the bridge early the next morning to get some nice shots without people photo bombing! After our tour was over, all of us went to “Beer Street” to grab some drinks and continue the fun. Everyone in the tour group was staying in our hostel and from all over the world: Austria, Spain, United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada—and us. Everyone was really nice and easy going! Over Hanoi beers, we said a group cheers to Vietnam!
2. Food Tour: The only thing better than doing a city tour of sites – is doing a city tour of FOOD. We are literally eating our way through Vietnam! We’ve been in Hanoi for 4 days and John and I felt like we got a good idea of Vietnamese food so far. But, we didn’t have any dinner plans for our last night, so we decided to join the “Food Quest Tour” that our hostel offered. We got to try so many different foods and half of which we didn’t even try yet -- And to think we were leaving Vietnam thinking we tried it all!) We went to nine different places around Hanoi, which you can imagine requires A LOT of walking. Which was a great thing because it justified all our eating!! Some of the foods we tried were: traditional pho, seafood fried rice, a noodle dish (similar to pho) called my van than, rice cakes, spring rolls, numerous Vietnamese desserts, and----PIGS blood!!!! …Yup, John ate pigs blood and I have a video to prove it!
I think the best part about doing the food quest, was the fact that you have your own personal guide taking you to find the hidden gems throughout the city. I would highly recommend doing a food tour through the city because even if you think you’ve tried all there is, chances are you might have missed a few!
3. The Note Coffee Shop: Vietnam is known for their amazing coffee and as per usual, I had to find a cute spot with personality. The Note did not disappoint! The coffee shop was four floors, and covered floor to ceiling in post-it notes. Each note was hand-written and stuck somewhere in the shop-there were layers and layers of notes on top each other! We both ordered Egg Coffee, which is a Vietnamese specialty. The staff was so friendly here and when they gave us our coffee they had written us a special note. John and I each wrote each other a note and stuck it on the wall where hopefully it stays.
4. Halong Bay: Just a quick day trip from Hanoi, Halong Bay offers a breath-taking change of pace from outside of the city. The city can get really overwhelming with all the loud honking and scooters whizzing by you; So, this day-trip was such a treat! John and I had a relaxing day on the boat, cruising through this Natural Wonder of the World. You can read about our full day experience on the post here.
5. Our Hostel: John and I decided to stay at Republik Backpackers Hostel, which had awesome reviews on Hostel World. It fit our price range ($11 a night each for our private room), it was in a great location and was a good balance of socializing and relaxing. In Hanoi, there are dozens of places to stay and searching on Hostel World we were overwhelmed! A lot of them advertised being party hostels and which we weren’t really into because we actually wanted to sleep at night. Republik was the perfect fit for us. They gave free beer every night at 6pm and everyone would hang out at the bar. It was a great way for us to meet people and learn about activities around town. Every night it was fun to go down and mingle with people our age from around the world. It made a huge impact where we stayed and helped make our time in Hanoi so great.
Hanoi exceeded all our expectations. These highlights are just a brief glimpse at the awesome experience we had during our 5 days. We’re sad to be leaving this amazing country, where we made some pretty awesome memories and met some equally awesome people.
