From serene Da Nang we flew into Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. The first look of Hanoi felt it was kind of an old city, compared to the glitzy Saigon and surreal Da Nang.
Read: Da Nang and Hoi An Travelogue
As is becoming the practice on this tour, we hit food straight from the airport, this time to a place called Madame Linh Restaurant. This was quite a crowded place, but the food justified it all, we had Ostrich meat cooked in Vietnamese style, Fried Fish, some lovely salad and Fried Coated Prawns.
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| Food at Madame Kinh Restaurant |
After this, fully satiated we went on a city ride. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum has the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh, the father of modern Vietnam. The mausoleum is open early in the day, and a large queue forms before its opening. The people in Vietnam adore their leader, and turn up in large numbers to pay respect to him.
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| Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum |
Later we went on a tour of Hanoi downtown on Cyclo, a local version of cycle rickshaw. The Cyclo is king of an “ulta” cycle rickshaw with the seats in front and driver at the back. It was an interesting ride through the lit up lanes of the city. We stopped by at the St Joseph’s Cathedral to have a look at the architecture. Hanoi is known for its Water Puppet Theatre, but we could not dovetail it in our schedule. Instead, we decided to go for “Egg Coffee” that is so popular in Hanoi.
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| St Joseph’s Cathedral |
Egg Coffee or Ca Phe Trung is a signature of Hanoi City. Many of my friends had categorically told me to try this out. We went to this coffee place called Café Dinh, a small joint on the first floor facing the lake, that is supposed to be iconic for its Egg Coffee. It is said that during the war, milk was in short supply, and Nguyen Van Giang, a bartender, came up with the idea of using whipped egg instead of milk in the coffee. Café Dinh belongs to the daughter of Nguyen Van Giang making it a very famous place where tourists drop in.
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| Egg Coffee |
We watched the making of Egg Coffee and tasted the drink. It was very different, more like a dessert, and I liked the taste.
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| Hanoi Bier Street and Skewered Pork |
We came across a Gujarati restaurant, aptly named Gujarat. I was told that this restaurant serving Gujarati and Marwari food has four branches in Hanoi itself, a testimony to the number of Indian tourists coming in. However, we had our dinner at the Beer Street, with a local Vietnamese “bier” accompanied by Noodles and Stir Fried Pork on Skewers.
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| Halong Bay Cruise |
The next day was reserved for Halong Bay, where there are limestone cave formations in many small islands. This is a UNESCO Heritage Site and draws a large number of tourists every day. The jetty at Halong Bay jetty is a three-hour journey from Hanoi.
We had a launch boat waiting for us at the jetty. This was exclusively for our group for this scenic journey through various islands in the bay. The sumptuous lunch served on the boat was one of the best on this tour. The spring rolls, sautéed prawns, and chicken curry were all so good.
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| Our Boat and the Sumptuous Lunch |
We got down at an island to visit a cave. While the caves are similar to Bora caves (Arakku) or Batu Caves (Malaysia) with stalactites and stalagmites, the maintenance of the caves was one thing that caught my attention.
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| Halong Bay Caves |
The Vietnamese tourist places are all maintained well as squeaky clean. The lighting inside does well to illuminate the natural colours of the limestone.
The Halong Bay trip took about the entire day. On return, we went to a street-side restaurant for dinner to enjoy Vietnamese food including Mixed Seafood Noodles and some local beer. We would depart for another country Cambodia, the following day.
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| Seafood Noodles in a Local Vietnamese Restaurant in Hanoi |
Vietnam is a pleasant and place to visit. The people are friendly and the cuisine is very different from India, but you start loving it in a few days. The country has everything – hills, valleys, sea. Tourism is encouraged and what struck us was the cleanliness in general in this country. I had good expectations from this trip, and Vietnam did not disappoint us.
Also Read: Ho Chi Minh City Travelogue
