Arrived in Hanoi after an overnight stay in Nanning.
China was busy but nothing compared to this, couldnt even walk on the pavement from all the scooters parked on it and the road was full of motorbikes going in all directions. Insane is the only word that will do it justice. To cross the road, you dont avoid traffic.. you just have to walk out and hope they avoid you otherwise you will just be standing there all day.
In the hostel i met a guy from Singapore who gave me a link to google maps that listed all the best street food places in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. So for i dinner i went out and tried the closest one to the hostel which was Bun Bo Nam Bo! Its a bowl of noodles, meat and veg with some sauce at the bottom of the bowl. Seriously one of the best bowls of food ive ever had, went back there 4 times over the next few days.
On day 2 i met a french guy called Charles in the hostel. I was just about to head out and go check out the markets in the old quarter but agreed to meet him for beers later. Later that night we decided to head out and try find Bia Hoi, Which is one of the cheapest beers in the world at around 16p a pint though ive heard locals get it cheaper. We eventually found a crossroads with 4 bars on each corner filled with a mix of Vietnamese locals and tourists. We find 2 plastic stools to sit on and without asking get handed two pints. Awesome.
After a few pints each we get told that there is none left so decide to head to another bar! On the way there we bump into my mate Keeley that i had met in Yanghsuo, China and she asks if we want to head to her hostel, The Hanoi Backpackers, for a few drinks.
So we head there and meet a bunch of folk including a guy with kiss facepaint. Afterwards Me, Keeley, Russell and another irish guy Simon leave Charles to chat up a girl and head for the night market to check it out but as we get there it was just shutting down so Keeley and Russell head home. Me and Simon decide to go try find Charles but when we get back to the bar we can only find the girls he was chatting up, they told us he ditched them for hotter girls and they were heading to the same place as him anyways, so we get in a taxi with them and head to Hanoi Rock City.
Simon who is the older guy in the photo above used to be in a band with Dig magazines Will Smyth. Or so he told me anyways.
There was an album premiere on for some Vietnamese rock band but apparently only locals were allowed in to actual venue. Tourists had to stay in the beer garden. So we just stayed for a while, had too many long island ice tea’s and then headed back.
On day 3 i booked a day trip to Tam Coc as had been told it was meant to be good from a cool australian woman called Lisa at the hostel. My guide came to pick me up in a minibus that was already full with mostly older folk, was glad to meet a younger couple from london who i then spent the rest of the day with. It took around 2 hours to get out to Tam Coc, where we went to a bhuddist temple which wasnt that impressive. China definitely has the more impressive temples that i have seen in Asia so far. After spending around 30mins walking round the temple we head for the boats.
Our guide buys us all tickets, splits us into groups and gets us onto these tiny little boats that are rowed by woman using thier feet and we start heading up the river. We head through caves, passed karst mountains and some small temple like buildings. At the end of the river we pull into a little pond like place and get hassled to buy stuff from woman in other boats. Shouting things like “baby needs can, you buy can for baby” haha! No thanks a red bull is the last thing your baby needs.
On the way back a boat pulls up beside us and a large box gets flung aboard, then a woman jumps on nearly tipping the boat over. Turns out she’s also on to try sell us some of her wares… this time tablecloths! just what ive been needing whilst travelling round the world!
We get back to the dock and go hire some bikes. We cycle out towards a small village and check out where all the locals live. Was pretty quiet so we just cycled on through and out towards all the rice fields. The view from here was awesome, miles and miles of flat rice fields with huge karst mountains rising above all over the place.
After the cycle we jump back in the van and head home.
Decided to go try have a haircut and thought it would be a good idea to try out one of the street barbers in Hanoi so asked the hotel where the nearest one is! So they gave me the guys name and directions. When i got there it wasnt a street barbers at all it was a proper hairdressers so i went in anyways and took a seat! He didnt speak much english so he just gave me a mens vogue style magazine and told me choose something. Every haircut in the book was all catwalk / beckham style so i just picked the least gay looking one and went for it. In the end it turned out a pretty good cut and it only cost me 500,000 dong or £5.
Later on that day i went to the night market to buy a watch expecting there to be loads but could only find 2 stands with the watch i wanted so if my haggling didnt work on one shop i pretty much had to buy it from the next! At first they wanted about $30 but managed to haggle the second shop down to $5 dollars which was still too much as a guy i met in Shanghai was buying them for £1.50 to sell on his ebay shop.
Went back for more Bun Bo, Nam Bo and then got an early night to head to Halong Bay in the morning.
Got picked up at 7am and headed out on the 4 hour journey to Halong City in a cramped minibus. When we got to the harbour our guide who we named “Peter” as his name was too hard to pronounce took us to a “Small Boat” which took us to the “Big Boat”. Before we got on the boats he told us that “We now got to small boat and goto big boat” about 20 times which led to people asking stuff like “What boat do we take to the other boat?” but he never got the joke.
We got to the big boat and it was way nicer than we thought it would be, me and charles both shared a cabin (no homo) and it was probably nicer than our hostel back in Hanoi. After dumping our bags in the cabins we headed up and had a full seafood buffet for lunch. Afterwards we just chilled on the boat for a while and then headed for the “Amazing Cave” as Peter called it which was probably the biggest cave ive ever been in but it was mobbed to the point where you couldn’t move and you had to follow a trail so couldnt explore the cave yourself which sucked.. So after 5 mins inside it just felt boring!
After the “Amazing Cave” we headed to a floating village and to go kayaking. Me and Charles all jumped in a kayak and went round a few of the karst mountains and passed some floating villages. On the way back we were paddling away and heard a huge horn. We looked across and there was a massive boat heading right for us so we paddled as fast as we could to get out its path. Once we were clear we heard the horn again and it had turned and was heading towards us again so we had to change direction and paddle out its way a second time. Was scary but funny at the same time.
Back at the boat Peter organised Karaoke for everyone but noone seemed into it so we all headed up to the top deck for some beers. We started a drinking game to get to know each where you had to take it in turns to go round the group and say everyones name starting from the left. I was last to go so had about 9 rounds to get everyones name and still fucked it up so had to take a drink. Later than night we finished every beer on the boat and then the english boys on the boat bought a bottle of Jonny Walker Red Label and more drinking games commenced!
The next day we headed to Catba Island where Me, Charles, Anika and Nanna stayed at the Eco Lodge in the countryside. We had the whole place to ourselves which was awesome! All the staff that worked there seemed very gay but were cool. We were speaking to one of the guys there and Charles asks the guy if he ever eats dogs? Yes he replies but not all the time. So later that night the guy comes back and asks charles if he wants to eat dog and charles says yes! He asks Me, Anika and Nanna if we some dog but we all refuse so Charles heads back to the staff area where all the staff are barbecuing a dog and gets handed a full paw! They all stare at him as he takes his first bite and then offer him some “Sauce”. Charles told me when he tasted the sauce he immediately wanted to be sick but just manned up and dealt with it. He asked what the sauce was and they said it was cat and dog insides that had been mashed up and left to ferment for 2 years.. said it was a specialty in vietnam. So glad i never tried any.
On the 3rd day of the trip we headed back to the boat and just chilled out for a while before heading back to the city. The boat crew came up and showed us how to chop vegetables into flowers but i dont think anyone can remember what they were told. After a few more hours on the boat we got back to Halong City and and headed back to Hanoi in our cramped minibus.
Back in Hanoi Me and Charles went and met with Eline, Anika, Nanna and another girl from the hostel for dinner. We ended up in a really posh place which was way too expensive but stuck with it anyways. After dinner Me, Charles and Eline headed out to a club which was about 5km outside Hanoi. When we got there it just looked like a shady back alley but we could hear music so just followed the sound. We got to two big metal doors, opened them and inside was a mental wee nightclub. Everyone in there was already steaming or pilled off there face but was a good laugh so we stayed there until 3 or 4am.
I went and tried to book a bus ticket with Sihn Tourist who are the best bus company in Vietnam but as they have such a good reputation it also means that around 1000 companies have just ripped it off and setup identical shops around hanoi. Trying to find the real one was hard. I eventually thought i had found the real one booked the ticket and went back to the hostel.
The guy from the bus company came to pick me up at the hotel, he was picking a few others up but definitely shouted my name. So i got my bags and got on the minibus. We drive down to a bigger bus and he shouts Vietiane and i was the only one left, he asks me where im going and i say “Hue” to which he replied “We dont have a bus that goes to Hue” so i asked him why he shouted my name and he had no answer.. he got on his phone and a few minutes later a motorbike pulls up and he rushes me onto the back of it. “Quick, Quick” he yells and we head through the Hanoi traffic at mach 10 trying to make another bus. When we get there my “Sihn Tourist” ticket gets swapped for Camel tours and i get pushed on the bus. Turns out that Camel tours had copied the the sihn tourist office which was only a few doors up but on the shop sign they both have the exact same address.
If your ever travelling with Sihn Tourist from Hanoi then make sure you get a free t-shirt if not then its a fake company.
I somehow lost all my halong bay photos and videos… so thats why there is a lack of them in this post.
Here is some more photos from my time in Hanoi.
great insight into how other folk in the world live tx
loved the cat+dog sauce story!