Hello Hanoi and Good Morning Vietnam

Woke up to another travel day, we are going to VIETNAM!!

So another day in airports and on a plane, starting to feel like my carbon footprint may not be the greatest this year, but my been app is starting to look tasty so swings and roundabouts I guess! The travelling was fairly smooth with no real issues. I have, in general, been impressed by how efficient most airports are these days, well as efficient as you can be with a group our size. Once we land we are greeted by our new guide for our time in Vietnam, Viet. Viet rounds us all up into a bus, and we head to Old Town Hanoi where our hostel is. As soon as we are all checked in, the boys, Louis and I head straight for the little local Pho restaurant round the corner, and it is delicious! Exactly what I wanted my first taste of Vietnam to be!

Once we are back at the hostel we get some good news, they have an hour of free beers followed by a pub crawl right after; now we are talking! So, of course, we all drink as many free beers as we can in the hour; I don’t go too crazy and only have around eight! Now, we are doing our own pub crawl, but it just so happens the hostel is also putting on one, so Alex and I make friends with the hostel hosts, so later on we can pop into their pubs and get the free shot that comes with the crawl! Once we are all nice and tipsy we head on out to the strip. I don’t know if anyone else has tried to go bar hopping with a group of over 20 people, all of whom are at different levels of drunk and with different music and bar preferences, but it does not make for a smooth journey. But the important thing is we have a good time and in the end meet up with the hostels pub crawl at a club with a pole dancing pole in the middle of the dance floor. As you can imagine it was a messy, fun night and also when I discover that both Emily and Poppy can actually pole dance! We finally make it back to our rooms and fall asleep having truly enjoyed our first day and night in Vietnam!

I woke up the next day a little worse for wear, so decided to skip breakfast but I am ready in time for the morning activity: a tour around the local markets guided by Viet himself. It is a great tour, down many winding streets with shops and stalls selling spices to socks. Unsurprisingly my favourite part is when we make our way past all the local restaurants which are filling the air with delicious smells. I also especially liked that road because as our group walked on past, a local man who was on a video call turned his camera around and said to whomever he was talking to, and I quote, “Look the Caucasians have arrived”, which I have to admit made me burst out laughing! Some of the group struggled as we walked through the section of the market with the butchers, meat displays in Asia are a lot more graphic and brutal than back in England. Personally I find it all fascinating and awesome but understand how it may be a bit much for some people. I ask Viet if, like in China, they eat dog and cat here, he gives me a look as if to say you aren’t helping calm people down! However, later he pulls me aside and says that yes that it is eaten in Vietnam, but tends to be more rural areas and, if I am really interested, there may even be an opportunity for me to try some later on.

Looking for the local Pho restaurant

The latest intakes arrive at Hỏa Lò prison

By the end I am starving, so ask Alex and Jon to take me for a báhn mì, a symbolic sandwich that is known to represent Vietnamese food the world over. The reason I ask Jon and Alex is because before I met them in Bangkok they had spent a few weeks travelling Vietnam, including Hanoi, and they have been talking about these bloody sandwiches since I met up with them! Once I eat it though, I understand why. In fact they are so good I order two, beautifully crusty baguettes filled with fresh meats and veg topped off with a lovely pate, a combination of Vietnamese flavours and french bread. I am not saying years of colonialism are worth it for a sandwich like this, but boy it is a good sandwich, made even better when followed by a beer in a bar overlooking the river Hong.

After we had eaten I have to admit I was sent into a bit of a food coma, so headed back to the hostel for nap. Once fully refreshed from my nap and food I joined back up with the group for the end of the city walk which took us to the famous train market street. Rows of stalls, coffee shops, and restaurants lining the sides of an active railway track, allowing visitors to sit within touching distance of the trains as they pass. The places are small in size so the group has to break up a bit. Somehow me, the boys and Louis end up in a coffee shop/bar with an owner who is insistent that we try shots of his peach rice wine. So after a few shots and a couple beers the train is on its way, we are ushered out to stand with our backs pressed against the walls outside as the train passes. It is a pretty cool experience, although my favourite part is later learning that as it passed Charlotte, who was further down the street to us, was sprayed by a liquid that we surmise was someone peeing into the toilet, that just drop straight out onto the tracks. After the second train passes, we are allowed once again to walk along the track and head back to the hostel for an early night. Tomorrow is a travel day to Ha Long Bay, so a good night’s sleep is called for!

Saint Joseph Cathedral

The tour ends at the Hỏa Lò prison, commonly translated as ‘fiery furnace’ or ‘Hell's hole’, it also means ‘stove’. The name originated from the street name phố Hỏa Lò, due to the concentration of stores selling wood stoves and coal-fire stoves along the street in pre-colonial times. It was a prison built by French Colonialists to lock up patriots and nationalists who opposed the French colonial rule of Vietnam. The French called the prison Maison Centrale, 'Central House’. To build the prison in such a strategic area the French displaced the villages, either by moving or simply destroying homes, pagodas and communal village buildings. It is a fascinating place, but the documented treatment of prisoners is brutal. Viet does warn us that, the now museum, is a little one sided in its re-telling of history. But to be honest, as it was a prison used to subjugate Vietnamese people in their own land, I am of the opinion they should get to be a little one sided when re-telling this part of their history: a side that, in this particular case, I find myself on! I will admit that, although a great museum and place that should be shown respect, I find myself cracking jokes with Charlotte and Elain as we wander round, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

The famous báhn mì

Train Street
(click on the top right hand icon)