After a 3-hour flight from KL, we arrived at Noi Ba International Airport as early as 8.30am in the morning (an hour behind Malaysian time). We arranged for airport transfer to Little Hanoi 3 Hotel at Au Trieu Street in the Old Quarter where we left our backpacks and ventured straight out into the streets. The narrow streets, endless motorbikes, dusty street stalls and the NOISE tell me that we are definitely in Vietnam!
Little Hanoi 3 - our base although we only spent a night here
Everyone just loves their horn here. There seems to be no visible road rules, no traffic control and honking is obligatory. You just can’t get away from the noise.
St. Joseph Cathedral, right next to our hotel offers a glimpse into the era of French colonialism. It’s charming when the bell chimes. (If you ignore the noise and surroundings, it’s almost like being in Europe)
It pricks your senses to drink in the sights and sounds of the city. We spent the morning trying to orientate ourselves in the maze of streets.
Fancy a haircut?
Sidewalk café?
More street vendors..
We later had lunch at Cha Ca La Vong, the famous old restaurant spanning five generations. It is so famous that the street where it is located is named after it. Up the slightly steep and creaking staircase, we came into the area with empty table set-ups and realized we were the first customers of the day. Lucky us as the place filled up quickly from then on.
Cha Ca La Vong
Indicated to us that we need not think of what to order. 90,000 dong (about USD6) seems a bit pricey by local standards. We settled with 4 servings for 5 of us.
Cha Ca (reads Cha Ga) - The waiter obviously knew we were tourists and showed us how to cook the food, dumping in loads of vegetables and the fish paste and stirring everything together.
Right at the heart of Hanoi is the Hoan Kiem Lake, the lake of the returned sword. It is the where people meet and all activities from locals concentrated at from jogging to stretching exercises to young couples spending quiet moments together to tourists snapping away with their cameras (us!)
The Tortoise Tower situated scenically at the center of the lake, making for more reflection photos
Hoan Kiem Lake at night
Next tourist attraction we made sure we covered before leaving Hanoi.
Ho Chi Minh Mousoleum
You must be wondering what is the fun in having to queue up to see a dead body. The guards are not terribly friendly and we have to form a quiet line to view his body. Uncle Ho, embalmed and put on display, looks peaceful as if in deep slumber. Surrounded by 4 guards who stand motionless, the room is hushed in silence and the atmosphere somber. It is a vision of respect, quite a remarkable experience reflecting the Vietnamese pride for someone who united their country.
Snake wine, anyone?
Not that adventurous with food, we opted for ‘safe’ places to fill our stomachs.
Down the street from our hotel, La Place obviously caters for tourists and we’re suckers :P. We ended up having 2 meals there for it is convenience and time saving. Even affectionately gave the place a pet name – Ratatouille (yup, that’s right. A rat gave us a fright while we were dining)
In our search for a nice bowl of Pho Bo (beef noodle soup), who would have thought I found the best I have tasted in our hotel breakfast!
Later confirmed that the yummy Pho Bo came from next door of which is incredibly packed from early morning.
Ok, so having passed by so many streetside food stalls, it would have been a waste not to try sitting on one of those cute tiny chairs for the experience of it. We spotted this student fruit juice bar next to St Joseph Cathedral where a lot of locals seem to hang around. Decided to give it a try.
Student Bar - Delicious fruit juices. We totally enjoyed this. Similar to ‘lepaking’ at mamak stall back home.
On our last night in Hanoi, (one of the condition for mmkk to join us for the trip) we splurged on a meal at Bobby Chinn Restaurant. She must have fell for celebrity chef Bobby Chinn, host of Discovery Travel and Living’s World Café Asia, and was hoping he was there in person. No such luck though.
The restaurant interior, scattered with rose petals, is definitely the kind of place to take a date out. But most diners were western expats or tourists.
Appetizers
The main courses we ordered
Yummy crème brulee and the little chocolaty ones were complimentary from the chef
The food was good. But I’m more impressed with the catchy menu, written with great humour.
And of course in an all girls trip, our favourite activity can’t possibly be missing. Moreover, we, as most budget travellers, were staying in the Old Quarter, the shopping haven in Hanoi. Like a huge outdoor shopping mall, the shops are organized according to their specific merchandise and street. There were 36 different streets with each trade adopted a street. There is a direct correlation between a street name and the stuff it sells – head for Silk Street if you are looking for silk, or Shoes Street for shoes, to hardware, to papers etc.
Bags shopping! Day and night scenes at bag stalls, up to the point where we were so tired and sat down on the stall owner’s chairs to negotiate price with him while he took down bags for us to choose. Practically all that we bought in Hanoi are bags, from little clutches to backpacks to trolley bag – we bought an average of 5 bags per person. 
Bridal bicycles?! There’s this street that sells all sort of wedding stuffs too (as much as I’m amused enough to snap a photo, I hope my dear fiancé won’t take this literally to mean I love the idea)
Hanoi is not a city I immediately warm-up to. We were really pushing things time-wise. It was more of a focal point for trips to Halong Bay and Sapa. Maybe a few extra days would change my opinion. But I doubt any of my travel companions this trip will willingly want to go with me again.
