I caught the overnight train from Hué to Hanoi (are you surprised? I love overnight trains!) on Tuesday to arrive in on Wednesday. This day, I’d splashed and gone for a bottom bunk rather than a top bunk, as they’re more expensive but have more space (plus you don’t have to ascend the step to get up to your bed!) however I wish I hadn’t. I shared my compartment with an old Vietnamese woman (who when I boarded the train, was in my bed), a middle aged Vietnamese man who used English at work with a Japanese company, and another older Vietnamese man. The old woman decided to turn the compartment lights on at 11pm when she wanted to go to sleep… I turned them off, half an hour she turned on her bed light that illuminated the entire compartment. At 12 I gave up and turned that off as well. Finally, the Middle Ages man decided to put his laptop on at 3am and play loud, bright video games. I think I got about 3 hours sleep… I wish I’d had a top bunk, as I haven’t even mentioned the worst bit yet: every hour, the old Vietnamese lady sleeping above me, needed to go to the bathroom. Rather than use the steps, she managed to stand on my leg every single time, on the hour, every hour. And not just gently, but like her entire weight. Ow. The restaurant car didn’t have anything good either…
Either way, I arrived into Hanoi at the wonderful time of 5am (shudder) so walked across the tracks, came out of the station dodging the taxi touts (getting so tired of them!) and walked through the deserted streets for an half an hour to arrive at the youth hostel. It was actually too early to even leave my bags, so waited for reception staff and checked in when they opened at 6am. Free beer on arrival – after only 3 hours of sleep, it felt basically like the evening before so I guess not too early for a beer?!
First thing first, breakfast, and what could be better than a steaming hot bowl of beef pho noodle soup. Delicious, fresh, rich clean flavoured broth, with two types of beef, lots of coriander and spring onion, and self-serve chilli on the table.
I then went to explore Hanoi; I went along first to the old French cathedral which is in the centre, near the Hoan Kiem lake. From the late 1800s, it was built in the heart of the old French colonial quarter. It’s quite an imposing building, quite deteriorated, but apparently still in use (although all the doors were locked to prevent visitors).
I then went to the lake itself to visit the temple situated on an island in the lake, called Ngoc Son (temple of the Jade Mountain). It is from the mid 1800s and built in the honour of a Vietnamese national hero, Tran Hung Dao. An ornate bridge leads to the island, on which there is a pavilion, a temple, and some beautiful plant specimens.
I walked back from there to the youth hostel, passing some communist statue in a square to the lake, as well as more examples of degraded colonial architecture. Ended up having a burger in the youth hostel for tea!
Everyone from the hostel ended up going out to a bar called Local that night, so we caught a couple of taxis after the hostel bar closed over to the bar, where they had £2 G&Ts, and somehow we were given free white tequila… The worst tequila I’ve ever had to be honest, but we were in Vietnam! I lasted until 1am when I decided to go home, and when checking on google maps to see how far I was from the hostel (as we had taken a taxi out), I discovered it was less than a 10 minute walk!
The following day, recovering from a hangover, I continued to explore the food on offer in Hanoi, as well as wandering around the streets and markets. The traffic is quite intense but better than Saigon by a long stretch. I never felt genuinely in fear for my life, whereas in Saigon there were multiple crossings that I never managed to cross. I’d booked a Halong Bay tour to be departing the following day, so decided to take the opportunity to relax a bit!
I went to eat bun bo nam bo in a lovely streetside place just down the road from my hostel (Flipside), it’s just so delicious! Heaped with peanuts, lovely fresh noodles and sauce, it’s actually a southern speciality but hey I have never liked to do things the normal way 😉 I then went for a coffee and a slice of cake, or rather “slice of cake” as it was more like a doorstop! Ridiculously large, heavy and dry, it came with a slice of orange; it was meant to be an orange cake but it seemed like the orange had been forgotten as the cake itself was so dense, it had its own gravitational pull.
Finally, time for the best juice I’ve ever had, pomelo juice 🙂 Grabbed some com tam on the way back (chicken rice) and then ended walking up coffin street back to the hostel – yes seriously, every other business was either selling funeral wreaths, coffins or funeral momentos. I’d never seen a coffin balanced on a motorbike until now! Tomorrow, early start for Halong Bay tour!