Taking two days discovering the cuisine, culture, and people in Hanoi was the excellent travel experience. Hanoi is not as busy as Saigon, but if you like to explore the cultural city with impressive history and lots of delicious, this is the city you should not miss.
This was the second time I came back to Vietnam, after the trip to Ho Chi Minh city (a.k.a Sai Gon) last summer. As knowing a bit about Vietnamese culture before, I was very curious to know more about this country in “S” shape culture; thus, I chose Hanoi for my second visit, and the trip was really worth my choice.
Not taking any tour, I wandering around Hanoi by walking for the first day and rented a bike for the second day as most of the tourist sightseeing and attractions were not very far from each other.
Wandering around the Old Quarter on foot
When you love the very Asian culture, you will definitely not taking the tour because most of the time they are very rushing and what you only see is some information and the appearance of where they take you to. As my plan, I took a day wandering around the Old Quarter, which for me is a biggest retail market in old French architecture in Vietnam. It was my luck to be able to rent a room hotel inside the Old Quarter on the street next to the St Joseph’s Church; it is called Au Trieu St. The price for a superior double room is around 15 – 30USD / night, and of course it is 2 – 3 stars hotel only, and depend on which seasons you come here. Staying here help me have the best view of the people’s daily lives in the Old Quarter.
A corner of the Old Quarter
As I may know, this area was built by the French and under Tran dynasty. People often known as the “36 streets”, and after that, when lots of tourists began to choose Hanoi, Vietnam as their vacation destination, they called this area the Old Quarter. The interesting thing is that this really a big retail and wholesale market, and each street sells different products but specific; and in the past, the street was named by what the major products were sold. For instance, Silver Street (Hang Bac) sold silver, Hang Mam (Fish Sauce Street) sold fish sauce, etc. However, nowadays, retailers and wholesalers sell variety of products that are not mentioned in the street name (i.e. Hang Vai – Fabric Street – has lots of sugarcane juice vendors, or Hang Hom – Casket Street – is the street of souvenir daily and “Pho” (beef / chicken rice noodle) paradise at night. Walking around the Old Quarter, you do not have to shop here (but you might be interested in shopping because the price is very cheap if you know the art of bargain), but you will have opportunity to know more about the culture and life of local people
Having a day discover the Old Quarter, I decided to visit Hoan Kiem Lake (Sword Lake) at night. I had a quick glance of Hoan Kiem Lake in the morning before I walked deep inside the old streets. Nevertheless, Hoan Kiem Lake in the evening is way more beautiful in my mind. Locating at the center of Hanoi, and being considered as capital symbol, Hoan Kiem Lake is the favorite place of Hanoians and tourists. Sitting on a bench at the lake shore, I was amazed by the sparkling and mysterious scenes of Hoan Kiem Lake.
Hoan Kiem Lake at night
Ngoc Son Temple is located on a gibbou inside the lake; and it’s worth a visit here. To go inside the temple, visitors have to go on a red bridge which is called The Huc (means “catching the early sunshine”). As I went here at the full moon day of the month (or the 15th in lunar calendar), there were hundreds of people coming here praying for their family’s health, wealth, and luck; and the temple is full of incense smell. However, it brought me a real Asian culture feeling, and I felt absolutely relax after a day walking around the Old Quarter.
Taste a hot bowl of “Pho” (Beef/chicken rice noodle)
Have been traveling to many countries so far, Hanoi, in my eyes, is the biggest city of cuisines in the world, especially various delicious street foods. The most famous food in Hanoi is “Pho” – Rice noodle, which is rated as one of the best street food in the world that people should taste once in their life. I do agree with this point of view. There are many kind of “pho”: beef or chicken served with soup, rolled “pho” with stir-fried beef, fried “pho”, pho mixed with meet and eat with tamarind juice, etc. However, the most well-known type is “pho” eat with beef or chicken and served in a soup bowl.
Beef / Chicken rice noodle eat with fried bread-sticks
There are some popular “pho” restaurant like Pho Thin, Pho 24; but if you have time, you can go inside some lanes or alley and you will find many small delicious “pho” restaurant but very cheap. For example, there are many “pho” stalls on Hang Hom street (from Hoan Kiem Lake, take Hang Gai street, and you will see Hang Hom on the right hand side); I ordered a big bowl of chicken drumstick “pho”, a plate of 4 fried bread-sticks, and a cup of ice green tea; the total price is 40.000 VND (USD 2) and I am happy with the full stomach.
Experience Hanoi by bike
On the second day, I decided to rent a bike as I want to travel to some other place a bit far from the Old Quarter. If you are the one who like to discover the city by your own like me, better ride a bike. The price for renting a bike is 80.000 – 100.000 VND per day (USD 4 – 5), or electric bike is 15.000 VND per hour (USD 0.7).
Phan Dinh Phung street
Riding under the shadows of old-year trees in both sides on Phan Dinh Phung, Tran Phu, Hoang Dieu, Thanh Nien streets – the most beautiful streets in Hanoi, I could feel the romance and peace of Hanoi in fall. In addition, I also had chance to admire lots of villa built under the French domination times, and many famous attractions such as North Gate church (Cua Bac church), Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Tran Quoc Pagoda, etc, on the way exploring Hanoi.
Fishing at West Lake
Another memorable experience is riding around West Lake and feeling a peaceful corner of Hanoi. West Lake have an around shore of total 17km, and it is really a good dating place for couples (as I saw lots of couples here). I do admit that the scenes are absolutely romance, especially at the sunrise or sunset – when you can admire the red round sun coming up or down. If you want to stay here longer, you can stop at some vendors or café shop; drink coffee, fresh coconut, green tea; or eat boiled snail (if you dare), shrimp pancake, and feel the cool wind coming from the lake.
.jpg)
Life under Long Bien bridge
Same as West Lake, Long Bien Bridge is another magnificent destination at sunrise and sunset. Riding bike on this hundred-year bridge, I was sometimes surprised and little scared when a train runs at the middle of the bridge, but it was really an exciting to experience. Do not forget to bring a camera, because as a tourist, you will definitely need it to capture amazing photos of the bridge architecture, or life of Hanoians under the bridge, or the corn and vegetable fields, or the scenes of students in traditional long dress (the Ao dai) walking on the bridge.
Drinking beer
Like many other city in the world, they sell different types of beer in Hanoi. However, I was impressed by the fresh beer (or local people call “bia hoi”, “bia co”), a speciality of the North Vietnam, and the cheapest beer in the world. “Bia hoi” is sold in almost everywhere in Hanoi, and you can easily drink fresh beer at a street vendors. Just sit down on a small plastic chair and the servers will bring you cups of fresh beer and a plate of peanut. The best place to drink “bia hoi” in Hanoi is at the corner of Ta Hien street inside the Old Quarter, where you can enjoy drinking beer on the pavement, watching the Hanoi busy traffic, and sometimes bringing your beer and chair running away from the police.
Drinking beer on Ta Hien street
Traveling Hanoi tips
- From Noi Bai airport to city center, you can take taxi (400.000 – 500.000 VNĐ / USD 20 – 25), or by Vietjet air or Vietnam airline shuttle bus (ticket: 40.000 VNĐ – 70.000 VNĐ / USD 2 – 4. Last station: Quang Trung st)
- Price: renting bike: 80.000 – 100.000 VNĐ /day (USD 4-5); electric bike: 15.000 VNĐ /hour (USD 0.5-1); motorbike: 100.000 – 200.000 VND/ day without gas (USD 5 – 10 depend on type of motor); cyclo: 40.000 – 60.000 VND / hour (USD 2-3) plus tips (depend on you)
- When you visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and other temples and pagodas, you should wear politely, you should not wear skirts and shorts. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum only open in the morning, and close on Monday and Friday.
- The roads in the Old Quarter are quite small and narrow, you should prepare a map.
- When going shopping in the market, you should bargain. The sellers in Hanoi are sometimes impolite; therefore, if you intend to see not to buy, you should go in the afternoon. When bargaining, do not bargain too hard, you should bargain once; even if you do not buy those things, you should go with a smile and say thank you to the sellers.
- After 11 PM, you should not walk around alone.
0 comments:
Post a Comment