HaNoi-The Pearl of Indochina

Definitely worth having breakfast , coffee, or a meal on the Dinh Lang restaurant on the banks of Hoam Kiem lake. Don’t miss a visit to the military History Museum, the one Pillar pagoda, the Water Puppet show at the municipal theatre, the Ho Chi Minh museum, the Culture Temple and above all ,whether you are young or feeling young, sample the nightclub scene of Hanoi, at clubs like Apocalypse Now or New Century Night Club and get your senses and bones rattled.

Quick Tips:

Respect the culture and the space of the Vietnamese people. Approach them with a reciprocal shyness and humility to their own. They are incredibly helpful and kind; when they see an effort from you to understand their culture, their history and even try to speak few words from their (admittingly difficult) language. Be relaxed and patient and try to absorb some of the spirit and life stance of this amazing people.

Best Way To Get Around:

Central Hanoi is relatively flat and is definitely worth exploring on foot for all those smell, sounds and sights you cannot fully experience when you move too fast. Next best (and faster than your feet) method is the famous CYCLO, a form of transport that I haven’t seen anywhere else (see free form on the rest of this journal) Bicycle and Bikes (rented) is another option, but I wouldn’t dare even try to imagine the legal complications in case of an accident involving a local. Taxis are relatively inexpensive too, but rarely necessary in central Hanoi, except late at night, when you return to your hotel from a club.

I found the visit at the Hanoi History War Museum one of the most intriguing moments of my month-long holiday in Vietnam. The entrance of the Museum is adorned by the Mig fighter aircraft seen on the photo below [the 14 stars on the nose of the aircraft automatically beg the question whether this particular aircraft has in deed downed 14 enemy (American) planes or whether the Vietnamese were a bit too enthusiastic with their star drawings].  As you enter the museum, your visit goes through the ancient battles and fighting techniques of the Vietnamese, and then you enter the more interesting 20th century. A fascinating method used by the ancient Vietnamese against the northern invaders from China was to dig holes in the ground, impale a sharp bamboo in the soil, cover the top sharp end of the bamboo with buffalo dung, and then cover the whole trap with tree branches and leaves. The unsuspecting enemy falls in the trap, suffers a sharp wound on his foot/leg, and this automatically gets contaminated because of the buffalo dung. Soon it becomes gangrenous, and the soldier loses his life, his leg, or both.

This ancient technique was employed during the Vietnam war era, and scores of American soldiers suffered the same fate with the Chinese invaders a thousand years before them. If only the American Generals had read their history lessons a bit better!! The museum is full of artefacts from the Den Bien Fou battle and from the American war later on. You name it it’s there. Abandoned American tanks, weaponry, American fighter pilots uniforms--the whole lot. The museum will keep your morning busy and your mind even busier……

Everybody has a special moment or moments to remember from a particular holiday, and one of mine was a breakfast of eggs and bacon with orange juice in Hanoi. And you might very well wonder what was so special with Vietnamese bacon or eggs. Let me explain.  

After we arrived in mid-afternoon in Hanoi and settled in the comfortable and very inexpensive accommodation that we booked using our Rough Guide, and we had a good night out clubbing in Apocalypse Now, smoking Cuban cigars, and getting acquainted with some very interesting Vietnamese ladies. Things never went too far, and conversation was a bit of a struggle, but we all had a good laugh nevertheless. Next morning, we had to solve the eternal problem of supplying food to our empty stomachs, and as we started venturing in the streets of Hanoi, we ended in the banks of Hoam Kiem lake, at the southeastern corner of which is the Dinh Lang restaurant. We had a quick look in the menu, and the familiar sight of eggs and bacon was sufficient to convince us to stay. The restaurant was empty, and we chose a table facing the lake. And then the magic started.

The proprietor had some soft, soothing Vietnamese music on his CD player, and clouds of mist moving and lifting were like curtains drawn and pulled, lifting and hiding the majestic views of the lake. At the same time, you could see some elderly folk practising tai chi in slow motion, almost coordinated with the music of our proprietor. For the next hour or so, the West was so far away, and the Great Orient had taken over. And the words of Frenchman Jolaud Barral sprung to mind: “Saigon and Singapore is where one exists. Hanoi is where one lives.” The photo below was NOT taken that magic morning .

The Cyclo is a bizarre and very popular form of transport in Vietnam. Imagine a disabled person’s wheelchair, pedalled from behind by a driver. It is a very cheap method of transport and for few cents, you may go from A to B in the funniest (not necessarily the safest) possible way , with loads of laughter. Vietnamese people cannot fathom why foreigners walk long distances (sometimes loaded with backpacks) when they can go from A to B by cyclo or taxi. Imagine their surprise when Andreas, George, and I convinced three cyclo drivers to let us hire their services on the agreement that they would sit on the passenger seat and we would pedal them around. We literally stalled the traffic in central Hanoi and central Hue, when local drivers could barely believe their eyes, when three crazy Westerners were pedalling as cyclo drivers and the poor drivers of these cyclos bemused and surprised were sitting on the passenger seats, not knowing what to do with their hands and legs and laughing quite uncontrollably.

They say that first impressions matter and do get engraved in your memory. When we decided to go to Vietnam back in 2001, we did our little study primarily from the Rough Guide and other sources , but at the end of the day we were not quite sure what to expect or whether Vietnam would prove a good choice as a holiday. We knew of nobody who has been there for a holiday!!! We left Bangkok’s noisy , busy and cosmopolitan airport with an Air France flight and before we knew we landed at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport. It was a misty, cool spring afternoon, and our plane was the only one on the tarmac.

As ours was the only flight, there was a spooky quietness at the baggage/arrival hall. When we went for the passport control, there were four uniformed officers behind wooden desks, each one with identical hairstyle and a steely serious facial expression. Their hats were placed carefully on the front right side of their desks and if you were to draw an imaginary line connecting the front part of each hat with the next, then you would get a perfect straight line! These guys have aligned perfectly their hats on their desks, their facial expressions, the hairs on their heads, and their perfectly ironed uniforms. As they were checking our passports and visas, Andreas who is about 6’4” tall bent his head on the side trying to peek on the computer screen. The customs officer was rather annoyed and promptly and firmly ordered him to step 3 feet back. Thankfully this very stern first impression was followed by one of the best holidays we ever had and the Vietnamese people proved to be joyful, hospitable, always helpful, welcoming, and friendly and had very little in common with their co-patriots on these customs desks.