Hanoi - Walking Tour

Today I was multitasking.

Firstly, I was waiting for a response from a company I had contacted about a motorbike ride/tour on the Ha Giang Loop. They had promised to contact me within 24 hours of booking. Those hours came and went. Ah, great. Stuff like that makes me rather restless and worries me constantly.

Secondly, I went for another of those free walking tours with only three other people and our guide, William from Vietnam. William was a kind, soft-spoken guy with three jobs: tour guide during the day, swimming instructor in the afternoon, and English teacher at night.
We met at the Statue of the Fallen Heroes and were told about the significance of the statue and the meaning of the object the soldier in the middle is holding.

It’s a lunge anti-tank mine - a suicide device used by Vietnamese resistance fighters against French tanks in 1946. The soldier would sprint toward an enemy armored vehicle, press the mine against it, and the three prongs would detonate it. The operator would perish during the assault. It’s meant to symbolise sacrifice for the nation’s survival.

We also went to a lake adjacent to the statue that had a popular myth attached to it:

The story is about Le Loi, a Vietnamese king who defeated Chinese invaders in the 15th century. Before the war, a golden turtle surfaced from Hoan Kiem Lake and gave Le Loi a magical sword forged by heavenly dragons. Le Loi used it to defeat the Chinese.
After the war, the same turtle reappeared and demanded the sword back. Le Loi returned it, and the turtle carried it underwater.

Symbolism:
• The sword = war and resistance (given when needed)
• Returning it = peace restored (war no longer needed)
• The turtle = Vietnam’s sovereignty (gives power, takes it back)

The lake is called Hoan Kiem Lake (“Lake of the Restored Sword”) because of this return. It’s one of Vietnam’s most important national myths.

Two of our group were Americans. So our guide was extra careful when talking about wars, since the history between Vietnam and America is troubled…

He kept emphasising that the Vietnamese perspective might not be the same as the American, but this is what went down:

The American view focuses on Vietnam as part of the Cold War containment strategy - stopping communism in Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese view frames it as a war of independence and liberation, first against French colonialism, then against American intervention. What Americans call “the Vietnam War,” Vietnamese call “the American War.”

After a bit of history, we went through the coffee street of Hanoi. (There’s lots of dedicated streets here: coffee street, beer street, street food street.)

Vietnam is famous for a few particular coffees: Coconut coffee, salt coffee, and egg coffee.

The latter was the one we were about to drink at Cafe Giang, where it was invented.

Now, egg and coffee sounds odd, doesn’t it?

It’s pretty good, though.

You get a bit of coffee topped with a thick cream - whipped egg + sugar, like a zabaglione. That alone is yummy. Mix it with coffee and you got yourself a pretty delicious drink.
Now, I am not a huge fan of coffee. Luckily, they have the same with matcha. I enjoyed that loads!

Apparently, the reason for its invention is this: back in the day, milk would spoil too fast and they couldn’t use it for coffee reliably. So they needed a substitute and came up with this creation.

We also went to a really crowded market, where you can find everything - if you believe our tour guide.

The market itself made me claustrophobic just by looking at it, so I was glad when we left again.

William told us about traffic rules in Vietnam and effectively said: crossing roads is anything but fun. If you wanna stand a chance, make eye contact with the drivers and hold out your hand, palm facing down. They might just allow you to pass between them, they’ll go around you. (Like in Malaysia, only there you hold your palm up to face the drivers.)
However, he specifically mentioned that there are both older people and people with good insurance who absolutely don’t care if they hit you or not. He said they’d have a more pleasant time in jail than at home regarding the amenities.

Apparently, humanity isn’t a good enough reason not to roll someone over.

I don’t know how accurate William’s account was, but based on my experience here, yeah, I can easily imagine.

Eventually, we did go to the Railway - but a different spot than the famous one. It was picturesque there, I must say!

William also mentioned the famous Railway Street that every tourist - me included - goes to. He said that the whole thing is pretty much not legal, but that it is so popular, they keep it going. Occasionally, the police will conduct checks and fine shop owners for operating, but they’ll get the money for the fine back in one night anyway and don’t mind too much.
He guessed it would be different if someone got seriously injured or killed there, though…

The railway was also where the tour ended.

Now we get to a part that still bothers me.

Free walking tours are per definition free. But it is customary to give a tip.

Our guide talked about tips quite a bit during the tour. How some people give as little as 5 US dollars and how he then wonders what he did wrong.

While I was trying to sort through my notes (a lot of them look quite similar, like the 100,000 Dong bill and the 10,000 Dong bill), William commented while watching me how it is always just really convenient to keep the smaller bills available and not give them away, and lots of other tidbits about money.

I really could have done without the audiocommentary. I felt pressured, to say the least. I ended up giving him the 500,000 Dong note, which he took without hesitation, naturally. That is about 16 Euros. 😁

For reference, the others gave about 200,000 Dong. Which is reasonable and what I had wanted to do, had I had enough smaller notes.

But 500,000 was not what I thought the tour was worth. While it was better than the one in Bangkok, it was nowhere near as good as the ones in Kuala Lumpur/Penang.

William continued to say how he’s imploring us to give him a 5-star review regardless of what we thought about the tour. His reasoning was that his boss recently yelled at him for 5 days when he got a 4-star review once.

He said to write whatever we want, but to give those 5 stars.

Sorry, but that’s not how this works…

I have yet to think about what/if to review.Read more