Hustle & Bustle of Hanoi

What a hectic city. Unlike Bangkok, Hanoi is a city that is difficult to understand. The streets are manic, as is the traffic. There are very limited pavements so people walk along the road weaving through the many oncoming scooters. It's not a city to relax in. Let's just say we're very pleased to have a 5-star hotel to come back to away from the hustle and bustle streets!

We've spent the last few days exploring the city including lakes, markets, the National Military Museum and the Chinese inspired Temple of Literature (Hanoi’s first ‘university’). The Temple of Literature was an example of preserved traditional Vietnamese architecture, dedicated to the top academics. This was Vietnam’s first university and is now one of the most popular historical sites in the city. The area is split into a series of courtyards, all designed in specific ways with underlying meanings.

We also tried Hanoi’s famous egg coffee and although we're not fussed about regular coffee, we were told this shouldn't be compared. Essentially they whip egg yolks and sugar and mix into coffee or hot chocolate. Dan ordered the egg coffee whilst Jess tried the egg chocolate. The coffee was very thick and creamy and the egg yolk is supposed to remove the coffee's bitterness. The egg chocolate was surprisingly nice although Dan couldn't say the same about the coffee! We enjoyed wandering the streets of Hanoi's Old Quarter, notably very French inspired, although this was more evident during the day before the chaos ensues at night. It's very common to see entire streets dedicated to selling the same or similar items and often pretty unusual ones. For example we've seen streets selling nothing but fans, then another selling hot pots, others selling bespoke motorbike seat covers, sewing machines, pet bedding, lamps and sunglasses (Dan bought a pair). Slightly odd, but we guess this strategy must work for them!

To finish off our stay, we wandered around the Weekend Market. The area surrounding the market and Hoen Kiem lake was buzzing with people and had a brilliant atmosphere.

We'd planned to move on to Sapa next, a high altitude remote northern village amongst beautiful rice terraces and mountain scenery. With difficulty travelling there given the limited sleeper trains in low season, in addition to the high likelihood of fog at altitude this time of year, we've decided to give Sapa a miss. Although it will be a real shame to miss the Vietnamese countryside, the timing just isn't right so instead we are going straight to Ha Long Bay. Having gotten the luxury bug, we decided to book onto a 5-star 2 night/ 3 day cruise around Ha Long Bay. "Looking forward to this one!" mentioned Dan.Read more