Trip of the couple Anne-Marie and Christian AUDE with the local agency Vietnam Evasion
From September 20, 2019 to October 2, 2019
Tour : Hanoi – Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lung Phin – Lan Ha Bay
Episode 10 : Hanoi
We might as well say it right away: Hanoi is a city that we really liked.
Having had the opportunity to visit many big cities in South East Asia, we thought it would be like usual: beautiful visits punctuated by a good dose of heat, noise and pollution, and finally the desire to leave this explosive cocktail as soon as possible. Well it was not the case in Hanoi.
We had chosen to stay in a small charming hotel in the middle of the old city, and it was a very good idea. Indeed if the hotels with swimming pool or garden are tempting to take a bath and to rest after the visits, they are often big hotels where the groups stop, located in districts far from the tourist centers of interest, what obliges to go back and forth between the visits and the hotel always tiring.
In our case, no problem of this type: all the visits are done on foot from the hotel and we can return to rest in the middle of the day in a few minutes
The property taxes were imposed according to the frontage, the inhabitants thus built houses the least broad possible, called “houses-tunnels”.
Nowadays this feudal law no longer exists, but the habit has remained partly because of the price of land. We can see very narrow houses that climb 3 or 4 floors in the countryside, as well as buildings like this one in town :
Let’s go for a tour of the city :
The Hoan Kiem lake and its famous places :
This small lake next to the old city is a bit like the lungs of the city: it’s here that you can see the inhabitants practicing tai chi or doing their weights session at 6am.
Coming a little later, we attend the usual photo session with models or not. In the 2nd plan, the tower of the tortoise (Thap Rua) on its island :
By posting this picture, I discover the brand of the bike: here is another French souvenir in addition to the mile markers. And it’s really a souvenir because you can hardly find a Peugeot bike in France nowadays.
In the south of the lake is the French district with beautiful houses in more or less good state often in beautiful gardens. On the other hand we did not find here the old-fashioned charm of these colonial districts that we can meet in Rangoon or in Pnom Penh in particular, or we have pleasure to imagine their splendor of former days.
While skirting the lake we pass in front of the old French post office, then we see the island of Ngoc Son temple of which I prefer the bridge seen at night :
After all these efforts, a stop is necessary to taste the local specialities, the egg coffee and the iced coffee with coconut milk, Hanoi having the culture of (beautiful) coffees.
Both are excellent, despite a little reluctance before attacking the egg coffee. While in all the countries of the region the local drink is tea (which I really don’t like), here I happily discovered a good coffee, often extremely strong (I love strong coffee). I wonder if it is to cut this very strong taste that Vietnamese add egg, condensed milk or coconut milk ?
At all the crossroads, the scooters cross each other in a joyful mess with the sound of horns, and where everyone keeps his calm
The most amazing thing is the people who drive while texting, I have often seen mothers with children on their laps texting while crossing an intersection !!!
We then enter the historical heart of Hanoi, the old city with its narrow streets, most of them specialized in one activity: silk street, funeral urns street, tinsmiths street, toys street, herbalist shops, etc…
In the early morning, these streets are quiet, and fill up more and more as the day goes on
In the evening we prefer Ma May or Hang Bac streets, where the crowd of locals and tourists rush to enjoy some good cocktails, some beers and a fondue or other delicious food.
It’s crowded every night of the week, but on Friday and Saturday, with the night market, it feels like all of Hanoi is here: whole families gather to eat outside for a few dishes at very low prices.
TAll these people huddled together, enjoying a beer or a fondue in a nice din creates a rather special party atmosphere.
The only problem is the size of these mini plastic chairs: my meter 90 has difficulty to bend on these tiny seats, whereas the size of the premises allows them to be comfortably seated.
Fortunately, other tourists have the same problem as me
There is only one remedy to this inconvenience: the caipirina followed by a good dish where you fry yourself pieces of meat or shrimp :
The continuation of the visit of Hanoi: temple of the Literature, Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum,… and the (very) surprising “street of the train
At the end of Dien Bien Phu Avenue (a name well known to the French) stands Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, a huge and austere marble monument in which lies the embalmed remains of “Uncle Ho” :
At the time of our visit, the monument was closed to the public, Ho Chi Minh being on leave in Moscow as every year in October to undergo conservatory care, so that the huge square in front of the mausoleum was empty. It must be said that the crushing heat does not encourage to park on this gigantic concrete slab.
Behind the monument are botanical gardens, the Ho Chi Minh Museum and pagodas :
Au début de l’avenue Dien Bien Phu, is the famous “train street”. A train track passes through the middle of this small street, which makes it a must-see attraction for all tourists.
Outside of the train hours, the workers are working and the tourists are sightseeing.
Playing on this attraction, the cafes are very numerous, some displaying the times of passage of the train.
For our part, we returned in this street for the train of 7 pm as many other tourists. We settle down in one of the numerous cafés, some being almost on the rails as the one of left :
We taste something and we wait for the whistle announcing the imminent arrival of the train. In less than a minute the tables and chairs are removed and the customers move back 1 meter. Then it is the guaranteed shiver :))
What surprised us was the relatively high speed at which the train passed when we were expecting a slow passage.
I learned that this street was forbidden to the public 2 weeks after our passage, the authorities having judged the danger of accident too great. Such a spectacle would be unimaginable in our overprotected western countries, but it seems that accidents are non-existent in Hanoi. This prohibition does not help the businesses.
A little culture : The temple of literature
It is a Confucian temple dedicated to the greatest scholars of the nation.
As in most of the temples we visited in Asia, it is the whole temple (gardens + buildings) that is interesting. Indeed the different buildings are quite disappointing, often quite empty except for the huge Buddha of the main pavilion (lowest pavilion of the Constellation).
The entrance is done through beautiful gardens
We spend however a pleasant moment in this place
Just in front of the temple there is still a very nice café-library in which a stop is necessary :
A visit to Hanoi would not be complete without mentioning Bia Hoi, a light beer brewed in local breweries. It is served everywhere for a handful of dong (20 to 50 cents). There is even the “Bia Hoi crossroads” where 4 microbreweries face each other.
No visit of museum, no other temples, no puppet theater on water, we leave without regret, having taken advantage of the walks in the old city and its so particular atmosphere. In addition to the meal in the street, we also discovered excellent restaurants more up-market: all that we had read on the food in Hanoi was verified: EXCELLENT.
We said to ourselves to come back to Hanoi,… then at the end of the trip we said to ourselves that we would come back to Vietnam.
Fantastic routes Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 1)
Fantastic routes Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 2)
Fantastic routes Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 3)
Fantastic routes Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 4)
Fantastic routes Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 5)
Fantastic roads Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 6)
Fantastic roads Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 7)
Fantastic roads Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 8)
Fantastic routes Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha Bay (episode 9)
