After a week in Laos we arrived in 1 short hour to Hanoi, Vietnam. This was after we looked into the treacherous 20 hour overnight bus from Vientiane to Hanoi on a road that feels like you are riding over craters on the moon, no thank you, airplane here we come! Once we arrived and got our visas we took the 45 minute ride into the city, not sure what to expect but already seeing more motorbikes on one highway then we have seen in all of Thailand and Laos. We were dropped off in the evening rush hour, totally disoriented and not knowing how we were going to cross the street with all of our luggage without getting hit. Well, we managed and checked in at our hotel, Splendid Star 2 (thanks for the recommendation McLure) where we were upgraded at no additional cost to the "honeymoon suite" (don't ask me why) which was a nicely spacious room with a big round bed (I guess that's what honeymooners like?) and a balcony that overlooked the city church. We were located in the Old Quarter and the city of Hanoi dates back over a 1000 years, which they just celebrated this year. The roads are narrow and small as the French had initially constructed them only for walking but were quickly transformed by the Vietnamese into small highways for motorbikes and cars of every size. With a population of 6.5 million people, 3/4 of the population own a motorbike. This makes for crossing any of the streets a very stressful and scary experience. But we were told to walk slow and keep a consistent pace, advice which proved to keep us unscathed. We walked the streets, ate amazing Pho and experienced the Bia Hoi's.
For those who are unaware of what a Bia Hoi is I will give you the insight. Imagine a "beer garden" but on the street where there are child size plastic tables and chairs that you sit at and drink freshly brewed beer out of keg (a little bit better than bud light and goes down like water) with an alcohol content of about 3.5%. And you drink beer after beer until the Bia Hoi runs out for about 30-50 cents a glass!!! Yes, that's right, it is the world's cheapest beer. With a boyfriend who lives and dies for beer we frequented the Bia Hoi's A LOT during our time in Hanoi. Bia Hoi's are a place mainly for Vietnamese men during lunch hour and after work; the women run the shop. Our first experience brought us to Bia Hoi 38, we occupied the only 2 empty seats among all Vietnamese men (me being the only woman drinking), and quickly engaged in our first Bia Hoi experience. After trying to converse with the other men about where we were from and that Hanoi was #1 we quickly became friends and before we knew it they were buying us rounds of drinks. We had another great Bia Hoi experience with our friends we met in Halong Bay that consisted of a very friendly intoxicated Vietnamese man, check out the video, it will describe everything...All in all Bia Hoi's were a very good cultural immersion experience!
After 1 day we desperately needed a break of Hanoi, so we booked an overnight boat to Halong Bay which was 3 1/2 hours away. We boarded the ship with about 30 other people and headed for one of the seven wonders of the world (well hopefully soon to be). With over 1,000 mountains, a floating village, and incredible sunsets we were headed for an amazing adventure. We quickly bonded with our fellow ship mates and met some great people from San Diego, Australia, and Holland. We went kayaking through caves into vast open bay inlets where peace and tranquility lie, I have never seen anything so breathtaking. The lush covered mountains soared up around you and you immediately felt transcended into a whole other world. After the kayak, we all bought the expensive boat cocktails where happy hour was buy 3 and get 1 free (some happy hour), watched the sunset over the mountains on the top deck while Brett played the guitar. Yes, everyone fell in love with him immediately. For dinner we were served a smorgasbord of catfish (it was the entire fish, eyes and everything but surprisingly very decadent), fried spring rolls (that we all were taught to make), papaya salad, rice, vegetable beef noodles, and pumpkin soup, amazing! The rest of the night consisted of too many consumed cocktails, squid fishing, karaoke and another live Brett session where he taught everyone how to sing "Wagon Wheel," it was epic.
The next morning we were forced awake way too early, heads pounding, food shoved in our mouths and quickly on another boat headed to walk through a cave all by 8:30. The cave we went in was incredible and one of the largest, unfortunately I don't remember too much other information as it hurt too much to pay attention to our soft spoken guide when all I could think about was water and being in air conditioning. The pics will show you how massive this cave was.
Afterwards we had one more incredible lunch feast and were headed back to the noisy and busy streets of Hanoi for 2 more nights before headed down the coast to Hoi An. We went to Hoa Lo prison which is where John McCain and other American fighter pilots were imprisoned until the end of the war. It was a pretty scary place, mainly for Asians, it seemed from the photos that American prisoners were not treated nearly as bad. It was creepy but a good history lesson.
We ended our trip with a good meal of wontons, spring rolls, beef pho, and frog legs! Yes, I ate frog legs and they were very delicious, Vietnamese delicacy (other than dog and snake) which I still refuse to try. Overall, Hanoi is a pretty incredible city with a lot of history and character, a place we would love to go back to.
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