Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam and just as crazy busy as HCMC. We met up with Ben an american guy we met on the train to Danang and shared a cab with him and another american couple as we were all going to the same backpackers.
We had booked to stay in the Hanoi backpackers cos it has a good reputation and has been recommended by lots of people. Unfortunately for us they are busy renovating so we actually stayed in a hotel next door to the temporary hostel and it meant that the legendary rooftop bar was out of action. On a side note we did check out their new hostel and it looked awesome. We didn't see the rooms but the terrace bar etc looked amazing and made us quite jealous!
As we arrived we were told that the power was out as the grid was overloaded because of the aircons etc so we couldn't check into our rooms yet. After 12 hours on a train it wasn't the best news but we decided to go for a walk instead. We found a Pho24 which is basically like KFC but for pho. We decided to check it out and the Pho was really good actually. On the way back to the hostel we walked past Fanny's icecream and with a name like that and Jeremy's competition ice cream eating abilities we decided we had to try it.The ice cream was seriously good, they have tons of different flavours and even do speciality platters where the icecream is shaped like sushi or springrolls.
After that we went back to the hostel and still no power. At this stage a shower couldn't wait so we showered by torchlight which was an interesting experience!
We then went for a walk around the city to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Here you can basically see Ho's embalmed body. Ho Chi Minh is something of a vietnamese hero and his pictures are everywhere. For someone that wanted to be cremated so as not to cause a fuss, the adoration is quite weird, he must be turning in his grave (or glass box as it were). Unfortunately for us it was closed but we got some pictures outside.
Hanoi is a big city but it definitely has a different feel to it than Saigon. The streets are lined with trees and there are lots of smart clothing shops and boutiques etc. I really enjoyed walking around and getting lost in the streets and there were definitely some interesting sights....One of which is the endless amount of street cafes which serve some weird and wonderful meat. Whole roasted ducks with their beaks still attached, little whole roasted birds(they looked like they could be sparrows or something similar.) and even snails.
After some street beers at the hostel and chatting to some fellow travellers we headed out for something to eat. For dinner we looked up a restaurant in the guide book and decided to check it out. Quan An Ngon. It was seriously good and I would recommend anyone visiting Hanoi to go there. Basically like a slightly more upmarket street kitchen you have tables in the middle with different stations on the outside cooking up different specialities. We ordered some Dalat wine (a vietnamese wine) which is the only affordable wine and actually has grown on me. At this stage I think all of us were a bit sick of beer. After looking at the menu we couldn't decide what to get so decided to order bunch of stuff for the 3 of us (Ben joined us for the day) to share. We got chatting to the one waiter who could speak english and he decided to be our guide for the food. Hetook us to each station and explained what the food was and if we liked the sound of it we ordered some. Needless to say by the time we were done we had ordered tons of food. Everything was really good though and it was a good way to try out the different foods on offer.
After dinner we decided to head back as we had a 7am wake up call for our Halong bay adventure which Jeremy will blog about later!!
Candice
Hanoi- train running through the city
Mausoleum
Street food
Some of the yummy food
The restaurant
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Location:Hanoi Vietnam
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