Hanoi, Vietnam

We spent our last day and a half in Vietnam exploring the city of Hanoi. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, and the second largest city in the country.

I read an article describing Hanoi as, "the most beautiful city in all of Asia." I strongly disagree with this statement. It took us about an hour to get from the airport to our hotel in the heart of Hanoi (the Old Quarter). The drive allowed us to see a huge variety of things - farmers tending to their fields, rivers, old buildings, shacks, new buildings, trash everywhere, and even numerous people selling things along the highways. The drive was actually not pleasant at all. The roads were incredibly bumpy, and that topped with stop-and-go traffic with motorbikes and people everywhere all over the streets accounted for Elodie throwing up all over me in the car. Not a pleasant start to our trip in Hanoi.

The city itself was interesting, and overall not what I expected it to be. The narrow streets are filled with shops, restaurants, motorbikes, cars, and people. The bustling city was constantly filled with the noisy sounds of honking - all day AND all night long. You seriously couldn't even walk down the street without feeling like you were going to be hit by motorbike. And the smell.... ohhh the nauseating smell that made me sick to my stomach every time we walked outside is hard for me to even describe. The smell of an overcrowded city - people, food, trash, and major exhaust fumes. Our tour guide said there are about 7-million people living in Hanoi, and about 4 million of them have motorbikes. It was overwhelming.

Notice the chaos of power lines in the photo above. This was a pretty common site throughout the city.

Our hotel was in the Old Quarter, which is where we spent the majority of our time. Old Quarter means "Ancient Quarter" or "36 streets." The 36 little streets are each named for a commodity once sold by all of the businesses on that street. So each street had merchants and households which specialized in a particular trade, such as medicine, copper, chicken, silk, jewelry, etc. It was an interesting area, with a lot of history and cheap shopping (but you always have to bargain).

It was certainly a city filled with history, and despite the overwhelming crowds and fumes there was a lot to see. You could look in almost every direction and see women carrying the traditional Vietnamese baskets over their shoulders or even on their heads. It was also common to see women on bikes filled with produce, looking to sell their goods to local vendors. 

Hoan Kiem Lake sits near the Old Quarter, and is one of the major scenic spots in the city. It's a city focal point and remains "the very heart of life in Hanoi." There is some legend about a giant turtle presenting the emperor with a magic sword to defeat Chinese invaders, which is why this lake is named "Hoan Kiem" or "restored sword." Ngoc Son Temple sits on an islet at the end of the lake. I read that certain parts of the structure date back to 1225.

Luckily Hanoi is very compact, so we were able to see all of the major sites in a day. We hired a personal tour guide and driver, who took us around everywhere. There is not a subway system here, so hiring a driver was well worth it, especially because it was cold and rainy.

Our site-seeing adventure began at the Hanoi Hilton. Don't let the name deceive you, this is not a hotel. It's actually Hoa Lo Prison, the prison that housed many American prisoners during the Vietnam War. The prison actually still displays John McCain's uniform from the day he was captured. Needless to say, it was a depressing site.

Next we visited Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum - the massive tribute to the most famous leader in Vietnam. It's the city's most visited site and "sacred place." We were told that Ho Chi Minh wanted to be cremated after death.  Instead of adhering to his wishes the people embalmed his body and placed him on display for all eternity in a glass tomb.  Nice way of showing their respect, huh?  In fact, they view his tomb as so sacred that they don't allow young children inside. So because we had Elodie, we couldn't go inside - but that's ok, I didn't really want to see his body anyway. Kind of creepy if you ask me. Anyway, the Mausoleum is only open in the mornings, from 8-11am. Our tour guide said this is because in order to preserve his body, they have to keep it cold the majority of the day - so there's only a 3 hour window where his body is actually put on display.

A short walk further you come across a bright yellow building known as the Governor's Palace. Unfortunately, you're not allowed inside this building. Behind the wooded park next to this yellow building sits Ho Chi Minh's house on stilts. Our tour guide said that Ho Chi Minh used to live in the Governor's Palace, but he didn't like it because it was built by the French and he thought it was too elegant for his simple lifestyle. So that's why he build the small and simple house on stilts next door to it.

Next, we visited the One Pillar Pagoda, which has a historical significance to the city dating back to 1049; and the Tran Quoc pagoda, which is the foremost symbol of Buddhism in the country. These were just two quick stops, so I don't have much to say about them because I don't know much about them!

After a short car ride across the city, we arrived at the Temple of Literature. It was built in 1070 and was formerly the site of one of the oldest universities in Vietnam. It's now a tribute to Confucius and used as a Confucian temple. The landmark has numerous pavilions and courtyards, and stone turtles.

We ended our evening with a tour around the Old Quarter in a cyclo (like a rickshaw) and a show at the Water Puppet Theatre. The traditional Vietnamese water puppet show dates back numerous centuries. There are several short performances or "Acts" throughout the entire show, each with it's own song, dance, and theme. Each Act revolves around a different Vietnamese lifestyle and includes performances such as: fishing, tending to the rice fields, dragon dancing, cultural dances, etc. Tickets only cost between $3-5, with numerous show times each day (but believe it or not, they sell out quickly!). We didn't get any good photos from the show ourselves, so the photo below is from here.

Wow, I know that was a lot of information. Thanks for reading. :)

I'm sure you could sense a tone throughout this post, because I didn't really like Vietnam all that much. But all in all, I'm glad we went. It was definitely a good cultural and eye-opening experience. My favorite part (of course) was the food. Vietnamese is ranked right up there with Italian & Indian on my list of favorite cuisines. Pho = the best soup EVER! I better be able to find this when we're back in the U.S.