Day 71 – arriving in Hanoi

The bus from Ha Giang pulled into Hanoi at about 11pm and we grabbed our rucksacks and walked through the buzzy streets of the old quarter to our hotel. The pavements were crowded with tiny plastics stools with crowds of people sitting out eating and drinking, we were excited to get out and join them after a good night’s sleep!

Day 72 – Hanoi

The next morning after a late breakfast, the hotel manager called up to let us know the last of our party had arrived. We hurtled down the stairs to find a wide / sleepy eyed Lucy; part two of mums visiting us in South-East Asia! Fires in Heathrow airport had delayed her by a few hours but couldn’t keep her away. She dumped her bags, splashed her face and off we headed into the streets of Hanoi to seek out some pho followed by an egg coffee, a delicious custard like concoction.

She’s here!

Egg coffee & the newspapers

We weaved through the streets of the stylish old quarter, peeking down the side alleys each packed with eateries, bars and stalls. Eventually we arrived at Hoan Kiém Lake busy with locals and tourists talking a walk around the water. We crossed a pretty, red ornamental bridge over to Ngoc Son Temple, a Confucian temple on an island, admiring the huge piles of tinned biscuits stacked up as offerings.

Mum was a complete champ and powered through the day on zero sleep, Hanoi was a full on first stop with the thousands of scooters whizzing through the city. After a delicious dinner of Bánh xèo (stuffed rice pancakes), a few Hanoi beers and an excellent gossip (Rowan and I have run out of things to discuss) we headed back to our hotel for the night.

Day 73 – Hanoi

Our final full day in Hanoi so we had a packed schedule of exploring ahead of us! We marched off to the main market, stopping to take pictures of Hanoi dogs or to navigate crossing the road. There is an art to this which is basically to cross without inhibitions and having blind faith the dozens of scooters hurtling down the road will swerve you. Mum and Rowan were much better at this than me and often had to wait for me to pluck up the courage and join them, sometimes we all held hands to make the journey across.

In the market quarter, each road seemed to specialise in different products from bike parts, party decorations to baskets. Our favourite was the fruit and veg street with produce beautifully piled up in wicker baskets.

You can buy ANYTHING at these markets…

We then headed to Cau Long Bien bridge, the train and motorbike bridge crossing the Red River. Rowan was kidnapped by a group of Chinese women tourists who all wanted to take pictures holding his hand on the bridge – it was a great moment. We walked down the bridge, peeking down on scenes of daily life below, such as a group of workers eating lunch in the back of a delivery lorry they’d been loading moments before.

Revived by some fresh coconuts, spring rolls and fried rice, we walked back to the old quarter to visit the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. It was a fantastic museum with different floors dedicated to work, family, clothes, religion. The exhibition on the role of women in the Vietnam War was particularly interesting. There were several million Vietnamese women serving in the military including women-only militias involved in active combat.

Having walked over 20,000 steps we were pretty knacked, but it had been an excellent day, we really enjoyed our short but sweet time in Hanoi! Such a full on but exciting city, we could have easily spent a week here exploring but equally we were looking forward to leaving the honking scooters and smog behind and head off to Cat Ba island to see the limestone islands dotted around Ha Long Bay. See you there!

Dogs of Hanoi