When you are planning your trip to Vietnam, Hanoi is bound to be in your list. It is the hub for most of the best adventures and it has a charisma that dates back to the war with the US.
As part of your research, you will quickly realise that Hanoi is a hot and steamy place, the bit that shocks is the humidity. It hits you as soon as you get off the plane. On the cab ride in you will see lots of water and cross the huge and muddy Red River, there is a reason for so much water.
Before you get to Vietnam, make sure you download the Grab app for your phone, it is a Vietnamese version of Uber and works really well, whether you are at the airport or hopping around town, it protects you from dodgy dealings and guarantees a good price.
Most travellers head for the centre of Hanoi where all the action is around Hoan Kiem Lake, to the Old Quarter area if you are budget conscious or the French Quarter area if you are less concerned, both of which are situated close to the lake.
As part of our planning we settled on the Old Quarter and stayed in a hotel called the SQ Hang Gai, which was 5 minutes from the lake and a great location. We stayed in this hotel 4 times during our trip as Hanoi is the hub you come back to after the trips. We found the hotel really good value, very friendly staff, nice rooms (pay the little extra for the superior room) and the small pool on the roof which does the job, though I wouldn’t expect too much from the gym.
After we checked in and had a shower, we headed out to explore the streets and were immediately overwhelmed by the traffic. The whole place is so intense and manic, there are motor bikes everywhere and they obey no rules of the road at all, other than don’t hit each other and just keep moving.
Cars do seem to have some sort of road rules but not many. Crossing the road involves putting your life at risk, the technique is to put your arm out to signal you are crossing the road, start walking and it’s best if you close your eyes. If stop, then the bikes start swerving either side of you and you end up like a little human island in a sea of scooters, so the trick is don’t stop.
Once we adjusted to the traffic, we then had to adjust to being wet. It wasn’t the rainy season but the skies opened at amazingly regular intervals, especially early evening, and when it rains, it really rains, so whenever you visit, you are going to need a waterproof. If you don’t have one don’t worry, there are 100s of shops selling North Face and Patagonia gear, or at least very good copies so have your cash ready for a bit of haggling.
When you go out looking for a beer, you need to look upwards, because most of the decent bars are not at ground level. Our favourite was Hello Hanoi, which had good music, fun and staff and good food. Lot of the hotels have roof top bars overlooking the lake, or more likely, overlooking another hotel bar or tower blog.
Beware that all streets seem to look the same and there are lots of them, it is very easy to get lost and Apple Maps is next to useless, it seemed to be even more lost that I was, Google Maps was much better, but it’s still confusing.
Hanoi itself doesn’t have a huge amount of history to look at, partly because it was flattened by B52s in the 1970s. There is some French influence but it doesn’t really stand out much, they love balconies on their houses, but that is about it and there is the Cathedral.
I’ll cover things to do in Hanoi in another blog.
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