Hanoi - Ha Doch!

Early in the morning, equipped with a lunch box from the hotel, we went to the airport near Hue. We quickly made progress at this small airport with only three gates and soon we were sitting in the plane. Within a good hour, we reached the capital of Vietnam: Hanoi. It should be mentioned that the train for this route takes at least 17 hours, so the plane is not the most environmentally friendly, but the fastest solution for travelers who are running out of time. Unfortunately, this is also the case for us...

In Hanoi, we just caught the bus that was supposed to take us to the Old Quarter. After an hour's drive, we arrived at the beautiful Opera House and got off. From here, it was only about 15 minutes' walk to our homestay. It was Sunday and a part of the city center was closed off, where many families were strolling around the lake in the best weather. This means that children can choose various vehicles, pretend to steer, and the father runs after them with a remote control... A funny spectacle!

Our cozy homestay was located in a small traffic-calmed street in the Old Quarter and first explained to us patiently the further travel options to our desired destinations. It's not that easy to fit all our must-sees into our schedule. Finally, we decided to book everything on the spot. After that, we moved into our great room with a green balcony and a glassed bathroom. We were invited for dinner by our host family for the evening.

Until then, we wandered through the streets of the Old Quarter and to the nearby lake from the way there. There, we crossed the famous red bridge to a small island with a temple in the middle of the lake. We arrived just in time to see a traditional sacrificial dance (or something similar) with colorfully dressed Vietnamese people and a lot of singing. A great spectacle that lasted a long time (to the chagrin of the boy who was stuck in the dragon costume in this heat...). Then we had a traditional Vietnamese soup at a insider tip restaurant, looked at a mosaic art East Side Gallery, and happened to pass by a beautiful old train station where some photo shoots were taking place. Since we knew that a train only passed by a few times a day, we decided to walk along/across the tracks to the so-called Train Street. In Hanoi, there is a street or a few houses that are only about half a meter away from the tracks and where the train rushes by every day. During the time when it doesn't do this, people make fires on the tracks, have coffee chats, play, wash, and eat. Really crazy and a real experience when the train comes! About 1 second after the end of the train, scooters and cars drive over the previously closed off part again...

Back at the homestay, we were already waiting for dinner with the locals and three other guests. We had chicken with bell peppers and mushrooms, crispy baked chicken, stir-fried morning glory (similar to spinach), and a type of minced meat wrapped in leaves or herbs. Of course, there was rice as always and also a heap of rice schnapps from the elderly senior chef. A funny evening with an elderly Canadian woman, two French people, and of course the locals, some of whom only spoke English partially.

We strolled through the night market, but since the market was huge, we quickly lost interest and turned around.

With a beer in our backpack, we sat comfortably on our balcony and wrote on our blog until the mosquitoes ate us up...

Day 2 in Hanoi: We took a taxi to go to Tran Quoc Pagoda located in the north of the city. It is beautifully situated on the largest lake in Hanoi and from here our sightseeing tour of Hanoi was supposed to start. So from here always heading south... We passed many authorities, ministries, embassies, the presidential palace, and finally a large park to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. This is really huge, with a large square in front of it and is guarded by uniformed guards. You can see that Ho Chi Minh is highly revered in Vietnam!

Behind it lies a landmark of Hanoi, the One Pillar Pagoda. It is somewhat inconspicuous, but it is the oldest in the city, although it has been destroyed several times in the wars. It is usually located in the middle of a lotus pond, but they are not in season right now. Nevertheless, Hanoi is also known as the city of flowers and has a lot of florists, which we noticed during our walk through the city. The individual streets of the Old Quarter are also divided according to guilds, which is why in one street you can find all tailors, all goldsmiths, all workshops, all shoe sellers, etc.

Our next destination was the Temple of Literature or the University. Here we actually got a student discount! The complex of the Temple of Literature, Van Mieu, is symmetrical and has several gates. The middle gate, Khue Van Cac, is the symbol of Hanoi. Behind it are tortoise steles with the life data of scholars who have passed their exams here. During the Tet Festival, human figures also play chess here.

After a short break and a coffee, we didn't know exactly what to do with ourselves. The French quarter had not been as exciting as we had hoped, so after much back and forth, we decided to walk back to the city lake. Since Carsten was actually tired and didn't want to walk anymore, Tina wanted to see a small temple and the central market, so we walked without a specific destination and with some distance between us through the streets. Without really noticing it, this distance became larger and at some point, we got lost in the middle of Hanoi, the city with 9 million inhabitants... Carsten at least had a mobile phone, a watch, a map, water, and money. Tina, on the other hand, walked aimlessly, without orientation, and with just a camera in hand (yes, that's how you know her) through the streets and slowly started to panic. Finally, each of us decided to roughly go back the way we had come. Luckily, Carsten found Tina somewhere like a miserable heap, and we were able to walk back to the homestay together.

After a short recovery, we were picked up for our food tour. Everyone who wants to know what the food in the respective country really tastes like should do something like this at least once! Our guide Rose, a young Vietnamese woman with very good English skills, wanted to introduce us and 6 other South Africans to Vietnamese cuisine in six courses.

The first stop was actually our insider tip from yesterday, but that didn't bother us, because it was very delicious and we were shown how to eat the soup "Bun Cha," which is actually more like a dip for the remaining things.

At the second stop, we had "Banh Cuon Nong Quang An." Now you know what that is, right? For the few who don't know: in a Vietnamese steamer, a rice dough is baked into a sticky pancake, which is then filled with meat or mushrooms and rolled up. The whole thing is garnished a little with fried onions and dipped in a sauce together with herbs. A bit like tortellini or dumplings in Vietnamese. Between the stops, we always walked a bit, because we were already quite full. Meanwhile, Rose told us a lot about Vietnam, the culture, and everyday life...

At stop number 3, there was assorted fried food. Delicious, but nothing too special. Spring rolls, shrimp, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, corn, and meat were served. However, we would never have found the restaurant ourselves, as we entered through a small entrance. We sat on small plastic stools (as in every street food stall here) by the roadside for the next course: sandwiches "Banh Mi." Here you can also see the French influence on the cuisine, otherwise there would be no bread here. However, it is the herbs and especially the coriander, which is used a lot here, that makes it Vietnamese.

Then there was dessert. In this case, it was a bowl with condensed milk at the bottom. On top, there were many fresh fruits, coconut milk jelly balls, and various jelly cubes. The whole thing was then mixed with crushed ice - a delicious and refreshing combination.

Finally, for our sixth stop, we went to a rooftop bar, where we were served real Hanoi egg coffee. A relic from the wartime when coffee was made with egg because there was no milk. As a substitute, eggs were used, resulting in a new creation that has survived to this day and actually tastes quite good.

That was the end of our food tour and it was already quite late. Since our night train to Sapa was still supposed to leave at 10:00 p.m., we had to hurry, get our things from the homestay, and go to the train station. However, we arrived just in time for the "King Express," which can be imagined similar to the Hogwarts Express, only with 4 small beds in each compartment. We shared ours with Monica from Poland and Gavin from England, who were married. After exchanging some travel experiences, we all wanted to sleep, but the air conditioning was so icy cold and couldn't be regulated, so we had to find a solution first. We quickly stuck a thick plastic bag over the huge ventilation in the ceiling with duct tape so that we wouldn't freeze in the upper bunk beds... it worked more or less and we tried to sleep... See you in Sa Pa!