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Published: November 28th 2012
Yes, I’m afraid so… We’re slightly bitter, spoiled tourists in regards to Hanoi. After the dazzling bright lights of Saigon, the dreamy lanterns of Hoi An, and the simply mystical atmosphere of Halong, Hanoi just wasn’t all that exciting.
Don’t get us wrong: It
IS a beautiful city with plenty of stunning French colonial vestiges (our favourites being the
Opera and the
Metropole Hotel) mixed with the ever-present Chinese legacy. And we also had some memorable meals at various charming restaurants such as
The Green Tangerine and
The Opera Club Nouvel, not to mention the delicious street food. But overall, Hanoi failed to captivate us. We were only there three full days and perhaps this is not enough to do it justice. Yet in those three days, we covered a lot of territory, hitting the tourist hot spots like
Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, the
One Pillar Pagoda and even the
Ethnology Museum, which was a particular hit with the kids. The only truly special activity which we are glad not to have missed was the
Water Puppet Theater which thoroughly delighted both the kids and us.
Less delightful was the excursion around the Old Quarter in an electric car.
We shelled out the inflated fee for this activity thinking it was a convenient and environmentally friendly way to take in some key sights, which didn’t necessarily require actual visits. Furthermore, it somehow seemed more humane than turning to a poor cyclo, given Arnaud’s hefty weight… (That will teach him to leave all the blogging to me!) However, we soon discovered that supporting the traditional cyclos, or perhaps our own trusty two feet, would have been wiser and less disheartening. Our apathetic driver did not follow the prescribed itinerary, only driving past a fraction of the sites we were meant to be seeing and at one point, even running his own errands while we sat naively in the double-parked car, waiting for him. He also did not play the recording which was suppose to be explaining what we were seeing, though of course, we now understand why. When we tried to complain, he simply ignored us and promptly terminated the tour. When we then reported the matter to the main counter of the tour company, our complaints fell further on deaf ears. The woman in charge chose to believe her driver’s over our foreign word, as he lied boldly in
front of us, insisting he had played the recording and we simply did not pay attention.
We finally walked away grumpy and dismayed by this experience, having seen no more than what our various strolls of the previous days had offered us, which finally proved to be plenty.
The
Old Quarter, with its famous 36 streets filled with colourful and eccentric shops, is full of character and the heart and soul of Hanoi. But if you are on a shopping lockdown and have already walked along a good dozen of the streets, it quickly loses its allure. Furthermore, you get to a certain point after 8 weeks of travel where you simply don’t have it in you to engage in yet another round of bargaining to simply secure a package of diapers.
We did get the sense that living here wouldn’t be quite so frustrating though. Being located in the Old Quarter meant we were in the heart of touristland and prime targets for scams and extortion. However, one afternoon we met up with new friends who moved here a few years ago with their three children. They offered us a reassuringly more positive perspective. They enjoyed living
in Hanoi very much, but lived far from the tourist zone. The “Expat Ghetto”, as they explained it to us, was over by
West Lake, which is a far more peaceful and pleasant part of town. The only draw to that corner of town for a tourist would be the picturesque lake and perhaps some of the expat oriented eateries. In our case, it was a sunset cocktail with said friends at the beautifully set
Hanoi Intercontinental Hotel and we did not feel it was a wasted journey, despite the traffic delaying us so much that we missed the sunset all together.
What did impress and often amuse us in Hanoi was the enthusiasm for sports we observed all around town. Already as our train pulled into Hanoi at dawn on that first day, we noted how many people were out and about exercising in the streets, from the countless speed-walkers and joggers to the hundred strong crowd doing Tai Chi in a large square to the sidewalk aerobics courses. In addition to that, on any given evening as we strolled to dinner, we encountered group after group playing badminton on the sidewalk!
Being the sourpusses that we
like to be, when it comes to fitness, all we could think about was how the heavy traffic pollution must be a hindrance to outdoor health pursuits. Also less charming is the insane traffic itself. Our problem was not the quantity so much as the ever-constant flow. To put it simply, vehicles don’t always stop at traffic lights, if there even are traffic lights to begin with. Furthermore, the 200% import tax on cars in Vietnam means that the bulk of circulation is actually motorbikes and scooter. The outcome is that crossing the street in a Vietnamese city can be quite a stressful production and surprisingly enough, we found the locals in Hanoi to be less sympathetic about it. In the South, we rarely confronted a zebra crossing without a friendly Vietnamese offering to escort us across, recognizing the insanity of their constantly flowing traffic system.
And in fact, that represents rather well our general reaction to the North. It was colder, both in climate and in vibe. And so we happily flew off to Laos on November 18th, keen to move on to friendlier pastures and discover yet another fascinating country. Despite a bittersweet ending, we absolutely loved
our month in Vietnam. We left with fond memories and much enthusiasm to return soon. We highly recommend it as a family destination.
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Susan Jenny
non-member comment
Hanoi - not your favorite I understand but not so bad either
It's good to see that there is some variety in your enthusiasms for SE Asia! I wonder why you didn't visit Hue, or maybe you did?? Anyhow, there seems to be enough in Hanoi to have attracted your attention and you're probably glad you went whatever the negative bits were. Let's say it will balance off much of the rest of Viet Nam for you, just as every country the world around has its + and its - places. Glad you are headed for more golden destinations coming up!