Hanoi: Back Into City Mode

Island paradise, tribal villages, wonderful scenery, small towns and villages, now in the blink of an eye we are transported to a crazily busy capital city and our whole mentality has to change. This regular shift is a part of travel which we are finding particularly stimulating, there’s not much chance things will go stale.

We’ve read a lot on line about difficulties in entering Vietnam with onerous visa checking, so what with that and the Coronavirus threat we arrive expecting delays: in reality there is no such issue and after some health checks we are quickly through. And so we leave Laos where it was around 11,540 kip to the £ and enter Vietnam where it’s about 29,805 dong to the £, so just getting started with taxi fare and a first bit of spending money means taking a cool 3 million from the ATM. 

So we switch the mentality to city. And, as we are to discover, this is where the Coronavirus issues really start to have an impact on our trip.

Hanoi Old Town

The labyrinthine back streets of Hanoi’s old town are terrifically atmospheric. By day the narrow streets with grubby buildings entangled in a spaghetti like mass of electrical cables are bustling markets, plastic bowls lining the floor displaying untold amounts of fresh produce, some appetising, others not so. The chopping of meat and fish, blood splatters abound, the shouts from vendors desperate to outsell their rivals. Souvenir shops overstocked with silk basket ware, tiny cafes selling Pho ensuring that there is just one aroma hanging in the air. We dodge mopeds galore even in these small streets, ladies either on foot or bicycles laden with baskets of produce weave in and out of the confusion of pedestrians and this army of two wheelers, all the time we have to keep our wits about us. From mid afternoon the tone changes in the old town, produce recedes, an army of tiny plastic blue and red stools and tables are placed out on the pavements, locals start to take their places, it’s time for Bia Hoi. Dusk falls, lights come on, the streets are swathed in an orange glow, the miniature chairs fill as visitors join this local tradition. The evening progresses, the bars overflow and the loud music blasts out the convivial chatter as the evening evolves.

• 

• 

• 

Bia Hoi

Isn’t it fabulous when you arrive in a city and discover a sub culture that you know nothing about until you stumble upon it. Here in Hanoi that sub culture is “bia hoi”, and it’s pretty unique. Every day around mid afternoon, the pavements fill with miniature plastic stools and tables, and crowds start to gather in convivial groups, all drinking a yellow liquid from identical glasses. This liquid is actually a straw coloured beer (“bia hoi”), low alcohol level at around 3%, and is drunk by just about everyone. It’s unique character is that it is “fresh” beer – it’s brewed overnight and in the morning and then delivered in small barrels to the cafes and street vendors at lunchtime, and drunk dry by nightfall. Of course, it’s much more than just a drink: it’s a sociable and inclusive activity and you immediately engage in conversation with those sharing your table, travellers and locals alike. We even meet a mosquito expert who is here to advise the Government on malaria defences. One other small thing: this beer sells at about 40p a pint….little wonder it’s the choice of everyone!

Climate, Culture & Corona

Some things are different here. It’s a little bit cooler, we’ve lost the sunshine and gained grey skies and a bit of overnight rain, Hanoians are wearing coats. Toothpaste tastes salty rather than minty (and that is ODD!). We can’t access any BBC websites as the BBC has offended the Government here and is blacklisted as a result. It’s pot luck whether we can go sightseeing as many public places are closed as protection against the spread of Coronavirus, though these closures seem to be temporary as each place is sterilised and then reopened.

The City And Its History

So we can’t access the prison which was dubbed the “Hanoi Hilton” by American GIs during the Vietnam War, though the exhibition outside is informative if somewhat politically biased. The rather lovely looking Ngoc Son Temple, on a lake island in the city centre, is also closed at first, but we manage a visit before we leave. Also closed is St Joseph’s, the cathedral which looks like a mini Notre Dame. 

• 

• 

But the Water Puppet Theatre is open and we attend one of the rather quirky shows, which is amusing if a little baffling to follow the storyline. Musicians sit above the water stage, although the “stage” is more like a paddling pool, an array of unusual musical instruments accompany the haunting, high pitched singing which tells the story as the puppets dance and splash and skip around the pool. It’s amusing, we have no idea what is going on. For those of you Brits of a certain age, it’s a bit like watching an episode from Michael Bentine’s Potty Time.  The show ends, the puppeteers appear from behind the screens, waist deep in water and take a bow, it is all a bit of fun.

And so to something we’ve been looking forward to seeing for a very long time, the famed Train Street, where the railway passes tightly between cramped buildings on its way out of town. So many blogs and websites tell you it’s all been closed for safety reasons: it definitely has NOT been closed, you just have to be “invited” by a cafe owner, and then you can take your seat by the track. Simply looking at the track wedged between houses, children playing on the tracks, is surreal enough, but sitting literally within inches of the express train as it powers through is a very unusual, and exhilarating, experience.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

A little further out of the centre is the trio of the ancient citadel, the flag tower and the massively imposing Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, fascinating places charting the history of Hanoi but in particular the fight for freedom and reunification during invasion by “the American imperialist”. We climb down into the underground War Rooms where the 1975 victory was strategised. The pride of the city and the part it played in withstanding invasion is palpable.

A Lenin statue looks sternly across a park; the Communist party flags fly adjacent to the national flag; information boards pour out detail of the comrades’ defence of their nation and their right to reunification. You are left in no doubt where you are in terms of political orientation when you’re in Hanoi, even if its Parisien tree lined boulevards still provide a strong reminder of its French colonisation.

Food Update

The big local dish here is Pho. Pho Bo is beef, Pho Ga is chicken. Like Khao Soi and numerous other dishes on this journey, it’s basically a noodle soup, only this time with spice levels diminishing, so definitely inching in the direction of bland. Maybe we haven’t seen the best of Vietnamese cuisine yet but so far it’s a lot less edifying than Thai. Fancy an egg coffee? Yes that’s another Hanoi speciality, gloopy egg custard on the surface of an espresso like strong coffee – the effect is kind of tiramisu but ten times sweeter and gloopier. 

And finally

In reality we haven’t seen the best of Hanoi, the Coronavirus closures, the overcast grey skies and difficulty fighting off the “travel tummy” have combined to make our time here one of the less edifying of the trip so far. Through no fault of the city itself, we are ready to move on.