The Wandering Hart

On our first day in Hanoi we just wandered the Old Quarter for most of the day including walking Hang Gai Street (also known as Silk Street) and looking at some clothing and tailoring options. Vietnam is often recommended as a place to get cheap custom clothes – although Hoi An and not Hanoi is the most popular place to do this. Ultimately we decided not to buy any clothes, but this was partially because we were sweating too much to want to try things on! It’s extremely humid in Hanoi during wet season and I’ve been dripping sweat for most of our time here and seeking out A/C the rest of it! That being said, rain hasn’t been an issue because it seems to come in bursts instead of being a constant.

After our hot walk down Silk Street we decided to take a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake, which is beautiful, and stopped in Ngoc Son Temple along the lake. Hoan Kiem Lake translates to “Lake of the Returned Sword” and is famous for a legend in which the emperor returns a sword that was borrow to defeat the Ming Dynasty’s invasion to the turtle god at this very lake. At the temple we saw 2 giant turtle statues in honor of this legend and in the center of the lake there’s a structure known as “turtle tower.”

After the temple we tried to see the famous Train Street where you can enjoy a coffee or beer just inches from a passing train, but unfortunately the Vietnamese government has decided to shut the street down due to safety concerns. Supposedly they have done this and reversed the decision before so it may reopen again, but we were unable to go. Instead we walked along the tracks about a block away from the more famous and commercialized portion.

In the evening we did a food tour through Crossing Vietnam with our amazing guide, Jamie. The tour made 5 stops and we got to try a lot of amazing dishes including bun thang (a noodle soup with pork and vermicelli noodles), banh mi (the northern version of which is different from what I’m used to in the US with crispier bread and cucumbers instead of pickled vegetables – apparently what we typically get in the US is a more southern type of banh me), and some fried snacks. We also got dessert including a sticky rice in ginger honey and egg coffees at Cafe Dinh. Earlier in the day we had stopped at Cafe Giang for egg coffees as well and really enjoyed them. Egg coffee is really more like coffee topped with custard and is very sweet and delicious.

On day 2 we decided to hit some museums starting with the National Museum. Unfortunately the upstairs of this museum was closed so we could only see half the exhibits, most of which focused on the Vietnam War. The exhibits were decent but if you’re looking for a museum to stop at in Vietnam I’d recommend our second stop instead: the Hoa Lo Prison memorial and museum. Hoa Lo Prison was constructed and used by the French to jail political dissidents up until the 1950s. Later the Viet Cong used the prison to house US POWs during the Vietnam War and it came to be known as the “Hanoi Hilton” amongst soldiers (most sources will note this was a sarcastic nickname due to the poor conditions in the jail but the museum displays insist it was genuine due to the excellent conditions). The museum is really well done and has a great audio tour especially for the sections on imprisonment under French colonial rule.

We stopped for pho for lunch afterward at Pho 10 Ly Quoc Su which was great and then rested for a while before heading to the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater. At the theater we saw a 1 hour show of traditional water puppets, which are puppets manipulated in a shallow pool of water. It was really impressive how lifelike they managed to make the puppets’ movements and how many cool tricks they could do! The singers and musicians (including a 1 string harp!) were also very talented.

After the show we ended the night with bun cha (a grilled pork and noodle dish) for dinner and black sticky rice for dessert at Duong’s Restaurant. The bun cha was incredible – would highly recommend Duong’s if you’re ever in the area!