Hello Hanoi & Friends!!

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HANOI

Our train pulls into the station in Hanoi at 4:30 am and since we know we won’t be able to check into any hotel at this hour, we hang out in the waiting room at the station until sunrise around 6am. We start things off nicely by being way overtired and getting lost trying to find the hostel – Hanoi Backpackers. Eventually we find it, but can’t check in yet – boo. We leave our bags there then go for some pho for breakfast. I think this day marks the point where we officially could eat anything for any meal. No longer did we need toast or eggs for breakfast – we were doing it like the locals – beef noodle soup for breakfast, lunch OR dinner…or all 3! haha

Still waiting for our hotel room, we wander around the Old Quarter of Hanoi which has an awesome vibe and some beautiful old buildings. We check out the History Museum, Opera House and see a motorcade transporting some hot-shot government dude somewhere special. The streets of the Old Quarter are a shoppers haven. Each street has a different item that is sold only there. You need glasses? Go to glasses street! Need shoes? There’s a street for that! Zippers? Yup! Bed linens? They got that too!

After checking into the hotel and showering at Hanoi Backpackers (4 bed dorm w shared bathroom for 7.50$ per bed incl breakfast), we feast for lunch on pasta and burgers for a change of pace. We walk a few kilometres to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, Palace and the One Pillar Pagoda. The Mausoleum is closed for maintenance, which happens for 3 months each year when Uncle Ho’s body is shipped off to somewhere in Europe for maintenance! We visit his Palace which features a stilt house that he was said to have lived in. The place was not really worth the 75cents we pad to go in as most of it was off limits. The highlight of the visit was when an ajuma (Korean elderly woman) came up to us asking us “Hwa jong shil?” repeatedly. Of all the people at this palace, she chooses to assume that WE will understand her question, which of course we do! She wants to know where the bathroom is! So we sort of help her find in then walk off chuckling to ourselves and reminiscing about the things we miss (or don’t miss so much) about Korea.

The One Pillar Pagoda is a neat looking, small pagoda nearby but the water around it was moldy and gross so we didn’t stay long. The streets in Hanoi were nicely decorated with banners commemorating the 1000 year anniversary, lights hanging from trees and lotus lanterns everywhere!

At this point, we are getting super excited because now we go to the airport to pick up Kyle and Meaghan who should be getting off a plane soon. They flew from Toronto to Hong Kong, then to Hanoi. There was a big typhoon ravaging Hong Kong at this time so we were a little worried their plane would be delayed, but we went to the airport anyways.

Trying to save money and do as locals do, we decided to take a bus to the airport. We were looking for number 7 or 17. We walked for quite a few blocks without finding the correct bus stop and finally we saw a bus depot with tons of buses. A young man asked us what we wanted and when we told him, he said “yes, my bus is 7!” (even though the front of the bus said 203). You might think that by now we know better than to believe everyone, but we don’t, so we get on, buy a ticket and the next thing we know, he is telling us to get off the bus and change to another one. He promises our ticket will be good for the second bus, which of course is not the case and we end up buying another ticket on the second bus.

The bus is rammed and takes about an hour to get to the airport. The airport is right on the side of a major highway and the bus just stops on the side of the highway to let us off! Nice! Rather than risk crossing the busy highway, we walk up the car ramp to the airport where we sit and wait for our friends to walk through the arrival door. And we wait. And wait. We see lots of foreigners coming through and even think we see them a few times, but no such luck. After 45 minutes, we start to worry that they were somehow not on their flight. With no computer or phone, we have no way of confirming this. After pacing for a little while longer we finally see two familiar faces come through the gates and we are so relieved and incredibly happy to see our friends!!

Travelling is an amazing experience but there’s nothing like hanging out with great friends and spending time with people you know. This was a welcome change of pace for us halfway through our trip and we were so excited to show them the ropes and have more adventures.

As if we hadn’t already done enough waiting today, we find a minibus going to Hanoi but have to wait until it is full for it to depart. By the time we get back to Hanoi, it’s dark out, past dinnertime and we are all starving!! We drop off their luggage at the hostel and then walk around Old Quarter to find Little Hanoi restaurant where we indulge in all the best Vietnamese food – spring rolls, rice and veggie dishes and of course, some bia hoi on a tiny corner stall. This city definitely comes to life at night and has a great vibe, both for locals and tourists!

The following morning we arrange our Halong Bay tour which will depart the following morning. This is basically Kyle and Meg’s only day in Hanoi so we had a lot to see and do! We start by walking around Hoan Kiem Lake, where we visit a temple set on the water and have fun watching couples taking mock-wedding photos, completely dolled up in their dresses, hair and make-up! Like in Korea, it is common for couple to take their beautiful wedding pictures on a separate day before the wedding.

Next we visit the Temple of Literature which is very impressive! It is very large with lots of different buildings in the traditional style, and of course and drum tower and bell tower. We have another meal of beef pho which is delicious as always then go to Hanoi Hilton. No, we did not go to the chic hotel, we went to the old prison Hoa Lo, nicknamed Hanoi Hilton. This was used as a prison during French rule many years ago and also by the Vietnamese a bit afterwards. There were stunningly life-like examples of how prisoners were treated, what their cells looked like and diaries describing the conditions. It was horrible to see and read the accounts, but very interesting.

At this point we split up: Meg and I went shopping and the guys when to the Army Museum and to see Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum again. This was basically the first time Mike and I had spent more than 5 minutes apart in nearly two months, and while we had yet to kill each other, shopping with a girl for the afternoon was a nice change of pace (but shhh…don’t tell Mike that!). The boys reported that the Army Museum was good with lots of old weapons from the war.

Later that evening, we met back near the hotel for a couple beers then went to check out mass at nearby St Joseph’s Cathedral. Vietnam is not known for being particularly Catholic but there are enough of them around that every weekend at mass, the church is overflowed and people sit on their motorbikes outside the church, listening to the sermon being broadcast on speakers into the streets. Of course we couldn’t understand it, but when it was time for communion, the ushers came out into the streets to let everyone have a chance to take bread and give a donation. It was quite a sight to see the lyrics to the hymns projected onto the wall of the church and hear the street filled with the song for blocks around!

We did a lot of walking today and at the end of the day we were all tired and reallllyyy excited to get to our Halong Bay cruise the following morning.

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