Once you have settled in Hanoi and adjusted to the crazy pace of traffic, the intense humidity and probably got wet, it is time to have a look around. When you start to wander the streets, it will quickly dawn on you that the whole place is a labyrinth and within a couple of minutes you will be lost and looking for Google Maps to get you out of trouble.
Our starting point for these situations is to find a guided walking tour so that you get your bearings and then maybe a bus or something so you see the sights. One of the big attractions that everyone goes to is Train Street, you don’t need a guide to find it and it is a lot of fun, so we ticked that box on the first evening, which got us off to a flying start.
You do, however, need to be aware that there are TWO Train Streets. There is the original one which is packed with travellers and lined with cafes and bars, and there is a second one that is building up but isn’t as popular yet.
We went to both; they are both fun and you can have a pint of their local (expensive) craft beer and enjoy being nearly crushed by a train. Safety is impressive, when they hear the train horn, bar owners appear blowing whistles and basically everyone gets out the way of the train, the alternative is to die or be seriously injured by the aforesaid train. Self-preservation is at the core of Vietnamese safety culture.
Beer Street was another essential drop off point on our first night. This is the hub of the backpacker community with strings of music bars spread around a block. I think this is the local authorities cunning plan to keep beery Westerners together in one place, and be prepared for Karaoke, it is almost their national pastime.
To avoid wandering aimlessly in the heat, we booked a walking tour for the next morning with these guys. It was very cheap, only costing $5, and that is because the guide is a volunteer. They are normally students aspiring to become guides, it is their way of learning their trade and improving their English. This worked well for us, our guide was quite inexperienced but we had a nice morning with her, visiting the French cathedral in the centre of town (bit boring), and then walking to the Hoem Kiem Lake.
The lake is famous for its giant turtles, which are now extinct as the last one died in 2018, the bodies of the last two are held in the Jade Temple, which sits on an island accessed by the Huc bridge. It is a really cool place and really gives out a good vibe about the history of Vietnam and its various gods and ancient dynasties.
Our guide then took us through back streets and winding staircases to her favourite little bar, where we were introduced to the wonders of Vietnamese Egg Coffee, which sounds revolting but it is really rather wonderful, and there is also a Salt Coffee which is equally as good.
The guide was very flexible and was happy to take us anywhere, but the problem was, we had no idea what we wanted to do, which was why we had a guide. So eventually we settled on visiting the French Prison, but it might have been more helpful if there had been an itinerary to be honest.
The French Prison was a particularly dark and daunting place. It turns out the Vietnamese are not easy to concur, in fact they fought of Genghis Khan 3 times, not to mention a long list of Chinese dynasties that followed.
The French bit off a bit more than they could chew back in the day, with lots of uprisings going on at regular intervals. They took a very European approach; they built a prison and threw all the troublemakers in jail. The tour of the prison is quite a blood curdling experience showing the miserable conditions the French imposed on their prisoners, male and female, it is amazing what humans can cope with.
One of the most poignant displays related to the history of the US bombing of Hanoi. The prison was used to house the US aircrews that were shot down, there were plenty of propaganda pictures of the crews having a lovely time which was clearly nonsense, but the pictures of the devastation caused by the bombing were deeply moving.
The key message to the world is that carpet bombing doesn’t work, you cannot conquer countries from the air, and that you can’t defeat a religion or a philosophy, in this case Communism. So, 50 years on, the message is still there, Afghans, Syrians and Libyans survived blitzes from the air.
In 2025 we have an active war in the Middle East where the US is trying, once again, to defeat one of the most dogged and hard core philosophies from the air. Just look at history, the weapons change but the outcomes don’t.
When it was all finished, we tipped our guide, said goodbye and felt in need of a cooling off. Inexplicably, we tried to walk the 15 minutes back to our hotel using Apple Maps, 45 minutes later, very hot, and still lost, we changed to Google Maps and found our way back to the hotel and slumped into the pool with an ice cold beer.
Basically, a walking tour of Hanoi is very hard work. On this visit we didn’t get to see the political buildings and designer shops as they weren’t of much interest to us, The other big attraction is the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, once again, not of much interest to us.
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