We traveled from
Hue to Hanoi on an overnight train, and arrived in Hanoi at about 5AM. When we exited the train station we asked a taxi driver outside to take us to a hotel we had chosen in our guidebook. As we entered the Old Quarter, two policemen on a motorbike with a sidecar attempted to flag us down. Our taxi driver immediately turned his lights off, and hit the gas. He was speeding through dark streets and intersections, with no lights on, and the police following close behind us. The police were getting further and further away from us, and our driver was periodically making noises like a siren, drawing his finger across his neck, and then pretending to wipe sweet off his head, saying, “Whew”. We were glad to finally get out of that taxi.
We attempted to check out several hotels in the Old Quarter, but at such an early time, most of them were closed and no one answered the door bells, so we took a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake, and watched people exercising and practicing Tai Chi, and then relaxed at the Tamarind Café before eventually finding a hotel room. During our time in Hanoi we ate a couple of times at the Tamarind Café and thought the food was very good. We stayed at the Classic Street Hotel (41 Hang Be Street), which was very nice, clean, and only $25/night.
Although not always exactly, the streets in Hanoi’s Old Quarter are named after the goods that are sold on them. We spent several days walking through town and exploring all the shops, enjoying great food, and meeting the local people. Two of our favorite restaurants were the Baan Thai Restaurant for Thai food, and for lunch, Hoa Sua, which trains disadvantaged street kids.
One evening we went to the Municipal Water Puppet Theater to see a water puppet show, which was fantastic. The puppeteers stand behind a senic backdrop in waist-deep water, manipulating their puppets, which come in and out of the water in front of the backdrop. A group of musicians plays traditional Vietnamese music along with the show, and some of the puppets even use fireworks! We also visited the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university, founded in 1070, which was interesting and impressive.
As day trips from Hanoi, we took a boat ride around Halong Bay and went by bus, boat, and foot to the Perfume Pagoda. We arranged these trips through a tour company in Hanoi called Handspan, along with a 5-day trip to Sapa, Bac Ha, and Can Cau in the Northwest. Halong Bay is incredible. The limestone formations are beautiful, and we spent some time walking through a giant cave in one of them. We had arranged for a private trip in Halong Bay, and had a large boat to ourselves, with 10-15 tables inside a nice dining area. If you have the time, Halong Bay definitely should not be missed.
The day trip to the Perfume Pagoda was also excellent. If we had to choose between this trip or the day at Halong Bay, we’d probably have chosen the trip to the Perfume Pagoda. We took a bus to a river, and on the bus our guide told us many interesting stories about the Vietnamese, their customs, and what we thought were culinary oddities! When we arrived at the river, we rode in canoes for about 2 hours, through beautiful areas which like Halong Bay, are dotted with incredible limestone formations jutting out of the land. We arrived at a small place on the side of the river where a “shop” was set up selling drinks and snacks, and from there took a 2-hour hike up to the Perfume Pagoda. At this riverside shop, there were monkeys tied to the shop with short ropes. Our guide explained that Buddhists who visit the pagoda pay to have the monkeys freed, this constituting a "good Buddhist deed". The problem is that as soon as they are set free, the shop owners catch them again, and tie them back up.
A short distance up the trail, there was a restaurant that we stopped at for lunch. In front of the restaurant was a dead bloated dear hanging from a rope, that looked like it had been there for a long, long time. We decided we wouldn’t order meat! The hike to the Perfume Pagoda was through very pretty jungle, and the Perfume Pagoda itself was also interesting. It had been raining a bit, and the stone steps to the pagoda were very slippery. Several people in our group fell multiple times.
From Hanoi, we hired a guide from Handspan to take us by train to Lao Cai, by bus to
Sapa, and then by 4-wheel drive jeep to
Bac Ha and
Can Cau.
For information on Hotels, Tours, Flights, and Books on Vietnam, check out the pages below:
Hotels in Vietnam - Recommended hotels in Vietnam.
Tours in Vietnam - Recommended tour companies in Vietnam.
Flights to Vietnam - Includes information about our experiences on different airlines we've taken to and from Vietnam.
Books on Vietnam - Excellent books on Vietnam's history, people, and travel.
All Text and Images © AdventureTravelVietnam.com
