Text and photos by Gypsy Prime
The Vietnamese capital will always have a special place in my heart if only because living there for several months allowed me to reflect and realize what I really wanted to do with my life. But more than a place for introspection, I will always remember Hanoi for its quiet elegance and feminine vibe – providing a sharp contrast to Ho Chi Mihn City's masculine and aggressive energy. It's a place of temples and museums and parks. Of cafes that serve baguettes and cups of strong dark coffee. Of wandering along the narrow lanes of the Old Quarter while trying to avoid those motorbikes that come out of nowhere. Of strolling along the banks of the lake, believing this must be a perfect time to reflect, remember and be thankful for a weekend spent in a beautiful city.
Visit temples, museums and other historic buildings:
Hanoi is a selfie paradise if only because the city has numerous cultural sites, there's always a good background for that perfect FB cover photo. This is of course not surprising as Hanoi has been Vietnam's capital for thousands of years, several dynasties have left their relics in the city while the colonial French government, whichcontrolled the city in the 20th century, constructed buildings modeled after France's architectural style.
But more than just another place for that selfie moment, visiting temple and museums will give you better insight of the city and allow you to appreciate Vietnamese history and culture.
Some of the must see sites include:
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum – a large memorial dedicated to Vietminh leader Ho Chi Minh, former chairman of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
This is also the site where he read the Declaration of Independence on September 2, 1945, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Temple of Literature – home to the Imperial Academy, Vietnam's first national university, it was built in 1070 and is dedicated to Chinese philosopher Confucius and other sages and scholars.
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology – a showcase of Vietnam's multicultural character, it features thousands of artefacts, photos and videos of the country's 54 officially recognized ethnic groups in Vietnam.
Vietnamese Women's Museum – a museum filled with hundreds of photos, paintings, objects and sculptures celebrating the role the Vietnamese
women play in country's history.
St. Joseph's Cathedral – designed to resemble the Notre Dame of Paris, the Neo-Gothic style church is one of the first structures built by the French colonial government in the Indochina region.
Food tripping
If you're visiting Hanoi, it's a crime not to indulge on food. Seriously. Vietnamese cuisine is world renown, celebrated for its healthy and tasty take on daily meals: reliance on fresh ingredients, liberal usage of herbs and vegetables and limited use of oil. Of course there are numerous restaurants in Hanoi serving Vietnamese cuisine, but if your budget is tight, then go grab a seat in any of these outdoor food stalls (known as com ba dinh) and enjoy a filling meal of rice, soup, vegetables and meat for roughly one dollar.
Some of the must try Vietnamese food:
Pho – this is Vietnam, duh? What better way to experience Vietnamese cuisine than to partake of the world renown bowl of pho – rice noodle soup cooked in either chicken or beef broth with a sprinkling of herbs and pieces of meat. chicken or beef, features predominately in the local diet — and understandably so. It's cheap, tasty, and widely available at all hours.
Goi cuon – freshly madespring rolls made of translucent rice wrapper, salad greens, meat or seafood and a layer of coriander. Often eaten with fish sauce as a dip
Cha ca – grilled fish cooked with noodles, dill, turmeric, and spring onions over hot charcoal. And the best place to eat this is at the century-old restaurant Cha Ca La Vong (at #14 Cha Ca St, in the Old Quarter). The restaurant is still located in its original ancestral house, complete with an ancestral altar downstairs and continues to be managed by the same family). The restaurant serves only one dish – its famous cha ca la vong. Each person pays 6 dollars, where you'll get a meal that consists of steamed noodles, veggies and grilled fish.You have to pay extra for drinks though (a can of softdrinks costs about 1 dollar).
Bánh cuon – rice noodle roll made from a thin, wide sheet of steamed fermented rice batter. Then it's filled with seasoned ground pork, mushrooms, and shallots. It's like lumpiang shanghai but it's steamed not fried. I even ate two servings!!!
Banh mi – baguette sandwich filled with margarine and pâte and assorted fillings of your choice including cheese slices, cold cuts, pickled vegetables, sausage, fried egg, fresh cilantro and chili sauce.
Shop at the Old Quarter
There are some small shopping malls in Hanoi but they don't have a lot lf stores and it's useless to compare them with the shopaholic paradise of Bangkok and Singapore with their malls that sell almost everything that you need, want, crave and more. What you might want to do instead is to head off to the Old Quarter and shop not only for silk blouses, coffee, lacquerware, jewelyr, etc but also to get to know more about Hanoi's merchants and artisans.
Watch water puppets:
Water puppetry is a tradition developed in the 11th Century at the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam. It's a traditional entertainment developed by farmers – they make wooden puppets and then use the flooded rice fields as a "stage" for their puppets. These days, the water puppets perform in a pool of water located in a real stage, with Vietnamese singers narrating either a folk tale or tidbits of Vietnamese culture (i.e. how they use umbrellas for courtship, or the communal nature of rice farming). The best performance is staged at Thang Long theater near Hoan Kiem lake. Ticket costs 5 dollars each – cheap and chic!
Hanoi Travel Tip:
Do yourself a favor and travel light in Hanoi. Unless you can get into one of those hotels which thankfully has an elevator, most of the cheap hotels in Hanoi (especially those located in the Old Quarter) are still housed in tube houses where you need to take the stairs all the way to your room located somewhere in the sixth floor. Of course, there's always the hotel staff to help you but even they will get tired carrying all that heavy luggage. On the other hand, climbing those stairs mean you don't need to go to a gym to burn all those calories that you gained after eating bahn cuon.
I never learned how to drive so I love taking cabs, esp in Hanoi where it's so cheap an I only spend one to two dollars for each ride. But what if you're running short of funds? Well, there's always the bus, which only costs 5,000 dong (roughly 25 U.S. cents) per trip. Install a Google Map app in your phone so you can check where is the nearest bus station and what bus number to take to get to your next destination.
