HANOI ROCKS -- Our Spring Break Visit to Vietnam
 

Following a 35-hour return voyage, we are back home again in Illinois after our week-long stay in Hanoi (including a long layover in Seoul). And what a week it’s been! As we sort through our trove of photos and refresh our memories of our stay, I thought I’d start posting this trip report in chunks at a time.

We spent most of our time exploring the Old Quarter and French Quarter of Hanoi, plus we took memorable side-trips to Ha Long Bay and The Perfume Pagoda.

ABOUT THIS REPORT
Using a standard, orderly, chronologically sequential trip report format to describe the experience of being in Hanoi… would just be wrong. Instead, this report will offer a mix of big-picture overviews, small-picture glimpses and random observations that (one hopes) will allow some sense of the place to emerge when taken together as a whole.

My daughter really wanted to name this report “We Didn’t Die Crossing the Street”. I thought about calling it “WWTBD? (What Would Tony Bourdain Do?)”.

ABOUT US
For those who don’t know us… my lovely wife and I are regular Fodorites, and we travel with our teenage daughter, Allie. Ms_go and I are in our 40s. This is the first time any of us has been to Vietnam. Japan is the only Asian nation that all three of us have visited; ms_go and I also spent a week in Bangkok a couple of years ago. We are typically 3-star travelers, value-oriented, love to go exploring on foot, and not really foodies (but we love to eat well!).

ABOUT THE TRIP
So, why Hanoi? Well, why not? We’d read good things. We were looking for an interesting destination that would offer a “different” experience from recent trips, which have included Scandinavia, London, Turkey and the Italian Dolomites. While Cambodia was perhaps higher on our list, we also considered the weather at this time of year and felt that perhaps northern Vietnam would be a bit more tolerable.

You’re probably asking yourself, why’d these crazy people go half way around the world for just a week? (Note, we’ve done worse… two years ago, we went to Bangkok for five days) Primarily, we were constrained by Allie’s spring break, and she’s at a point in school where she simply can’t miss any days. And we’ve learned that if we wait for that perfect time when we have weeks to enjoy the perfect itinerary… well, it may never happen.

Sure, there was the temptation to cram in as many things as we could into our short time there. We thought about Sapa. We thought about a side trip further south. In the end, we felt we’d get much more out of the trip, and appreciate the destination more, by taking the time to get to know one city a little better. And we were right.

ABOUT OUR GENERAL IMPRESSION of HANOI
There’s an awful lot going on at street level, all day long. Every 20 yards, the sidewalk is blocked by someone who has set up an impromptu kitchen or beer joint with a handful of tiny plastic tables and stools. Or a “parking lot” for motorbikes. Street vendors are hawking all manner of fresh produce, baked goods, books, fake zippo lighters, etc. And everywhere you look, dozens of people (age 10 thru 90) are zipping past you on motorbikes—often carrying large loads of produce, boxes of beer, or occasionally entire families (including small babies)..

Despite this being an ostensibly “communist” country, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city with more pure, unadulterated entrepreneurial capitalism happening everywhere.

ABOUT THE WAR
Hanoi has been there for 1000 years. That’s a lot of history. Not many people there today remember the American War, and the ones who do simply don’t care about it anymore. Seriously.

ABOUT CROSSING THE STREET IN HANOI
The first few times you try, you are certain that you are going to be maimed or killed. The next few times, you feel like you’re getting the hang of it (it’s not entirely dissimilar to the old “Frogger” video game, actually). After that, you just step off the curb and trust that things will turn out OK. And they do!

ABOUT THE HOTEL
The Hanoi Elegance Ruby is a boutique hotel in the heart of the Old Quarter, on a relatively small (and quiet, considering the chaos of central Hanoi) alley/street just a few blocks from Hoan Kiem lake. We can’t say enough good things about this place, and about the courteous and helpful staff. We booked a Family Suite which was amply spacious for the three of us and very well appointed. Breakfast was sensational, and included in the price, as was a complimentary bowl of fresh fruit left daily in the room and an in-room laptop with wi-fi for our use throughout the stay. The manager went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure our stay was worry-free, providing excellent advice and helping us arrange our daytrip to the Perfume Pagoda as well as our overnight excursion to HaLong Bay. He even had my sunglasses fixed after I dropped and broke them, free of charge. Honestly, I have only experienced this high a level of service once before, and that was at the 5-star Peninsula in Bangkok.

Here’s the kicker: we only paid $110 per night. Which brings us to our next random topic…

ABOUT THE INSANE VALUES
You want a splendidly delicious meal, including appetizers, mains, drinks and tax, for a family of three at a sit-down restaurant for about $15? Hanoi is your town. Everywhere we looked, bargains were falling from the skies. A funky-cool necklace with interesting ceramic pendant for Allie: $1.25 (she went back to the night market to find the same vendor and buy about 10 more for her friends). A beautiful scarf for ms_go: $5 or $6. An icy cold bottle of decent local beer: 50 cents. A 50-minute ride to the airport in a comfortable private car with door-to-door service: $16. And if you run out of local currency, almost everyone takes US$ as well (but you won’t run out, since ATMs are plentiful).

ABOUT THE CURRENCY
The conversion rate while we were there was just over 20,000 dong to the dollar. It’s actually more confusing to do the math in your head, on the fly, than one might imagine.

ABOUT THE STRANGEST EXPERIENCE WE’VE HAD IN A LONG TIME.
Thanks to the enthusiastic recommendation from a gregarious Irishman expat we met at the Museum of Ethnology (more on this later), we decided to book a daytrip with a private guide to Chùa Hương (the Perfume Pagoda). It’s a venerable Buddhist temple complex, including a shrine in a huge cave, a couple of hours drive (and another hour boat ride) outside of Hanoi. The cave shrine itself is interesting enough, but the real attraction is the journey to get there on a peaceful river through the heart of a splendid mountain valley. You hire a boat, and a strong young woman rows your party the entire way there. We had a private craft, but we saw other boats loaded down with as many as 30 pilgrims at a time. After you land, there is a steep journey up the side of a mountain which, fortunately for us, now has a step-saving gondola ride if you’re not inclined to hike up.

Here’s the strange part. We shared the river ride and the pagoda cave with hundreds of other people, and a significant portion of them were gawking at, pointing to and whispering about us. And by “us,” I really mean Allie. As a pale, blond, teenage girl in semi-fashionable clothes, Allie was nothing short of a rock star to some of these folks. All three of us encountered people reaching out to touch our skin and hair, apparently just to see what it felt like. Others tickled themselves by calling out the only English words they knew: “hello” and “thank you”. And when we responded with a hearty “xin chào!” it pretty much made their day. Our guide explained that many of these people had come to this site from far away in the deep countryside, and they’d most likely not seen people like us before. Not in person, anyway. Ironically, among the very few westerners we saw that day was a French couple who’d been on our Ha Long Bay cruise two days earlier (more on that later, too).

After visiting the shrine we walked down the path, past a few hundred vendor stalls, all the way back down the mountain and enjoyed a hearty lunch with our guide. And after lunch we took the same boat back to where we started.

There are quite a few negative reviews of this day trip on Tripadvisor, but in all, we found it to be a wonderful and scenic experience, and a very worthwhile daytrip. Reading those reviews in hindsight, I think that people who see this as all about the destination (the cave) might be disappointed; the advice we received to experience it as a journey, not a destination, indeed was good advice. Finally, I would highly recommend doing it the same way we did, with a private guide and driver and not in a larger tour group. I am positive that the extra expense (approximately double the cost, or $60 per person) was worth it.

Some preliminary pix from our Perfume Pagoda excursion can be seen here:
http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p181947780/slideshow

More to come…

Excellent! Looking forward to more.

Wow, this is a great report Mr. Go! I love the pictures.
I like the way you have catagorized the report. It makes it easy to read through.

Loving the report! So glad you enjoyed the Elegance hotel. I've spoken with people who rave about the Metropole Hotel, but can't imagine it being as wonderful as our experience at the Elegance at a fraction of the cost. What a treasure to be able to travel with your teen aged daughter (who wants to be with you at that age!) and to build such wonderful memories. Wish we would have visited the Perfume Pagoda after reading your report. Hanoi does ROCK!

Great start! We also enjoyed Hanoi and spent a week there, though that was a lot of years ago now, so I'm eager to hear your experiences.

Thanks to all. I should point out that this trip report, and all the photos, are a collaborative effort with ms_go. Just like on all of our other trip reports, we work as a team.

I'm working on the Ha Long Bay recap right now, and I hope to have something posted this afternoon.

I'm really enjoying reading your "so-far" report. As you know, we just got back from SEA, and loved Hanoi (and the Elegance chain of hotels), so it's fun to relive through your eyes!

ABOUT THE ONLY OTHER CITY WE’VE BEEN TO THAT COMPARES TO HANOI
…is Naples. They’re both huge cities with long histories and a gritty character. Both are notable for their chaotic traffic, narrow streets, vibrant street culture, flavorful but unpretentious cuisine, architectural diversity, warm climate… and a seemingly endless supply of motorbikes. They aren’t necessarily immediately grand and appealing like, say, Paris, but the more time you spend in both of them, the more you appreciate them and the more they grow on you.

ABOUT OUR OVERNIGHT EXCURSION TO HA LONG BAY (ACTUALLY, BAI TU LONG BAY)
We also booked this side-trip through our hotel, and it’s yet another thing they got exactly right. Some folks choose to make this a daytrip, which is do-able but (IMHO) not really advisable. It’s a boring 4-hour bus ride out to Ha Long City from Hanoi and 4 hours back, including the obligatory shopping (or toilet) stop, and then the most scenic and interesting places on the bay take a while for the boat to reach. So an overnight on the boat really is your best bet.

There are many cruise options for all budgets. We cruised aboard the Red Dragon (one of a small fleet owned by Indochina Junks), which is a small but well-run ship, and our triple-room was much larger and more comfy than I’d expected on such a craft. We enjoyed three meals on board, and they were all terrific. Joining us were a Chinese-Australian mom and her 24-year-old daughter (both from Sydney), a 30-something gay French male couple (who we met again on our Perfume Pagoda trip), and an older French couple celebrating their 40th anniversary. Allie relished the opportunity to fully engage her French language skills with our fellow travelers, calling this the “most intensive” French practice she’s ever had (including travel to France)..

Most cruises go to Ha Long Bay. The Indochina Junks (IJ) fleet, on the other hand, goes to the lesser traveled but equally spectacular Bai Tu Long Bay, which is also part of the World Heritage area. The scenery here is unlike any other we’ve encountered, anywhere. Thousands of small, steep islands and rocks jut out of the water everywhere, creating an otherworldly appearance. The strange seascape was accentuated by a persistent misty overcast much of the time. (Pix to come, eventually.) While we’ve heard the landscape in Ha Long Bay can get pretty crowded with boats, the area to which we went included just a small handful of IJ boats, which are all on the smaller side; one of them has just one cabin (the honeymoon boat!).

After lunch on the first day, we set out for a nearby island with a nice, sandy beach and a large, well-lit cave with interesting rock formations. There were also gorgeous views of the bay from this island, and we both almost sprained our trigger fingers from all the shots we snapped. Afterward, we climbed into kayaks and had a blast following our guide around some of the local islets. Just about everyone participated in the fun — and some of us got wetter than others (ms_go pretty much required a full change of clothes afterward)!

Back aboard the Red Dragon, we were treated to a delicious, multi-course supper. They were thoughtful enough to cook up some alternative dishes for Allie (who does not like seafood and is allergic to nuts) and the Aussie girl (who’s allergic to shellfish). Ms_go and I splurged on a decent bottle of wine, as drinks were the only thing not included in the excursion price. After an enjoyable evening of conversation, we all retired to bed and rested reasonably well.

The next morning, we set out for the Vung Vieng fishing village located on another island deep in the heart of the bay (Indochina Junks has been working with this village over a few years to improve its infrastructure and strengthen its livelihood). We interacted with the locals there, through our guide/cruise director, and listened while the adorable children recited their lessons in the little one-room village schoolhouse. If you’re going with Red Dragon or one of the other Indochina Junks ships, you might consider taking along some small school supplies such as pencils and pens (we forgot). But soon it was time to return to the boat and head back to Ha Long City, where our bus awaited. We made it back to Hanoi in time for a nice stroll and some dinner.

Interested to hear about your Halong Bay trip - I'll keep that in mind if I do it again. Enjoying your report - always nice to find another person who loves Hanoi.

<i>...always nice to find another person who loves Hanoi</i>

All three of us did, actually. Especially Allie.

We both loved Hanoi!

Nice report I LOVE Hanoi too!

Best description I've read of a Halong Bay cruise. And great info about Indochina Junks taking a different route than other boats.

Great report, pix too - I am also a big Hanoi fan...

We also loved Hanoi. Fabulous city!

We loved Hanoi too when we were there in January. Such a fun, vibrant city - cheap too!!

Good reading. We'll be doing the cruise with Indochina Junks (same boat, I think) in November. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. We debated extending the Halong Bay visit two 2 nights, but it sounds like you were happy with just the overnight, which is what we finally decided. Thanks for the tip about bringing supplies for the school--I'll tuck a box or two of pens into my carry-on.

thanks for the report....pics are nice...i want the boat ride without the 2 hour motor ride each way and without the caves

My favorite photo is the one of the two women lounging in the boat with one chatting on her cell phone. It seems so anachronistic; a real statement of the times.

I've posted some photos from our Bai Tu Long (Ha Long) Bay cruise:

http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/p117716538

I haven't done much to caption these, but I'll work on this eventually. They look pretty "grey," but that's the way it was.

Here is the link to the Indochina Junks site:
http://www.indochina-junk.com/

We booked through our hotel (all handled months ago) at a cost of $165 p/p for a triple cabin. I probably paid a bit of a mark up, but the convenience was welcome.

aprillilacs, one night was enough for us, but that was partly due to the weather. As you can see in the photos, it was mostly cloudy, and we had a few raindrops here and there. It was also a little on the cool side (maybe 60ish F), so we really didn't want to spend a lot of time on activities that involved getting wet. Our cruise guide/director (or whatever his title was; he was very good by the way) said that was pretty much the norm for this time of year but the coming months would be sunnier and warmer.

Excellent report and wonderful pictures mr & ms_go and Allie. Adding to my SEA itinerary for next year.

jdc

Wow, stunningly beautiful pictures from Bai Tu Long Bay. Definitely worth adding to my itinerary.

BTW, were those two dogs strays or did they belong to a family? The kayaking looked like a lot of fun.

jdc

Thanks jdc26. The kayaking was fun--and would have been even more fun if it was just a few degrees warmer. The puppies were on that little island with the kayaks (you can see it in a different photo) and the cave. I guess they must live there with whoever keeps up the equipment. They're just babies; they were still nursing from the mother.

I want to add that no still shots of Ha Long or Bai Tu Long Bay are going to do it justice. That's because the panoramic effect of having these massive karst monoliths all around you is the really breathtaking part of the experience. We were both even commenting on that fact while we were snapping those shots, "you know, this isn't really capturing the view, but what can you do?"

Trust me, being there is far better.

Lovely, lovely photos! Thanks.

Very nice photos and enjoying the report, too. Glad to hear of all family members fully enjoying the same trip. And it does sound like a value, too.

Gorgeous photos, just breathtaking, can't wait to go. Is this the end or are you continuing your TR?

Thanks!

Shanghainese, we're working on more of the trip report, and I haven't even begun to look at all of the photos that we took in the city. We'll get to some of that in the next couple of days--work has kind of been in the way (and taxes).

OK, I'm wrapping up my work week and leaving the office. But before I do, here's little more trip report. Have a nice weekend, everyone... and thanks so much for all your kind words!

ABOUT THE MUSEUMS IN HANOI
They’re better than you might expect, actually. We visited three of them: The so-called “Hanoi Hilton” (Hoa Lo) prison, the aforementioned Museum of Ethnology, and the Museum of History.

I wasn’t necessarily dying to see the notorious torture-prison, but it did have a few things going for it. First, it was within walking distance of the hotel (although, ironically, we forgot our map and still managed to get within a half block of the museum before having to stop and ask for directions). Secondly, it was one of the very few tourist attractions open on Monday. And lastly, it doesn’t cost much… so what hey. Turns out, the place is fairly interesting and they’ve done a good job of presenting the awful conditions of the place without being too heavy-handed with the agony and squalor. Many westerners (especially Americans) may not realize it, but this prison was a dreaded place long before the war. It was originally built by the French, and the vast majority of its inmates and detainees over the years have been Vietnamese locals. Over 90% of the museum focuses on this reality, with just a couple of small rooms dedicated to the American War. And yes, there’s a picture or two of John McCain in there.

It’s worth noting that much of the original prison was demolished years ago to make room for development. As you stand in the solemn memorial courtyard in the back of the place today, you hear the laughter of wealthy foreign children playing in the daycare center several stories up in the posh high-rise adjacent to it.

The Museum of Ethnology would be better called The Museum of Odd Housing Structures Built by Ethnic Minorities. It’s a pretty cool place, and (we gathered) fairly authentic. It really makes you think about the amazing ethnic diversity in this area of the world, and it’s a good thing that they’ve chosen to honor and celebrate that diversity. (It’s a bit of a cab ride away from the Old Quarter, but cabs are cheap… no worries). While we were there, we saw dozens of young, pretty Vietnamese girls in brightly colored “prom” dresses hanging out with their boyfriends and taking pictures of each other. Apparently, it’s a graduation tradition. Some fun-loving bearded Irishman in a Motorhead t-shirt became part of their photo shoot; we struck up a conversation with him, and then with his buddy who lives in Hanoi (and it was he who recommended the Perfume Pagoda to us). There’s a fairly decent little café on the grounds, run by the Hoa Sua school, which trains disadvantaged street kids (similar to the better known KOTO) where we enjoyed a quick, light lunch.

The History Museum is terrific, and very smartly laid out. It was probably my favorite of the three. The natural sequence of rooms takes you from the very earliest pre-history in the region right through to the modern day, with all important periods of Vietnamese civilization represented. The artifacts and displays are well-ordered and aesthetically pleasing overall, and some of the individual pieces are stunningly beautiful. In many ways, it’s the perfect melding of an art museum and a good history lesson. It stimulates the mind and pleases the eye. It’s also a very striking old colonial building near the opera house, with a nice sculpture garden in the courtyard.

Wonderful report,Go family. I have been to Ho Chi Minh City briefly and want to visit Hanoi too. Definitely want to go now!

<<<While we were there, we saw dozens of young, pretty Vietnamese girls in brightly colored “prom” dresses hanging out with their boyfriends and taking pictures of each other. Apparently, it’s a graduation tradition>>>

We saw them, too, but never did figure out who/what they were, so thanks for the explanation.

<<<(It’s a bit of a cab ride away from the Old Quarter, but cabs are cheap… no worries)>>>

$6.00, but if you're like us, you'll walk back the 5 miles or so to the Old Quarter(despite the fact that the girl at the front desk AND our taxi driver laughed when we told them we planned to do that!)

Great selection of photos, and good info on the museums. Thanks!

I'm planning our visit to Hanoi and your trip report is so helpful.
Do you have contact information for your airport pickup and for the tour company that arranged your trip to the Pearl Pagoda? Thanks. I'm eager to read your next posting!

Hi HappyTrvlr, we booked everything through our hotel, the Elegance Ruby...airport transfers (it was the hotel chain's car and driver) and Red Dragon cruise, and they also made the arrangements for our trip to the Perfume Pagoda (that was decided and done just the evening before). The latter was with a private guide who is an independent contractor and who is a personal contact of the hotel manager. I don't have the guide's info, unfortunately, but he was very good.

sf7307, on a good day we could have walked back from the Ethnology museum (we like to walk, too), but we passed...partly to save some time and partly because DD wasn't feeling 100%.

We'll try to get some more of this done by the first of the week.

We also used the hotel's airport transfer seevive (we stayed at the Hanoi Elegance Diamond). We were picked up by a taxi they sent for us, but were driven back in their own shuttle- not sure why.

Great report and fabulous pics---as usual from the Go Family.
I am so happy you did it so i will not have to go. Just too far for me.

Thanks for directing attention over this way. Loved the report, loved the pics. VN's been very high on my wish list forever, and seems justifiably so.

Really enjoyed your report & photos!

I am toying with a visit to the Perfume Pagoda for a day trip from Hanoi later this year. (I am a believer in 'it's all in the journey'!) Any additional details would be most welcome.

Thanks for sharing your trip!

ABOUT OUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE HANOI KIDS (AND WEASEL POOP?)
Hanoi Kids is a remarkable program that gives local students an opportunity to practice their English skills with visitors, and gives visitors a chance to explore the city and its unique treasures with young local guides. The only costs to visitors are cab fares, admission tickets, lunch and other refreshments. Arrangements are made in advance online, and it simply could not have been any easier. We scheduled our guides for the afternoon of our first full day Hanoi. It wasn’t completely necessary for us to have a guide; Hanoi is quite navigable on our own. But we wanted to acclimate as quickly as possible, and we also thought it would be an interesting experience for Allie to have a few hours of interaction with local college students.

Two bright, personable young men showed up at the hotel lobby right on time, and off we went! Both of them spoke fairly decent English, although we did have to listen closely at times. Our first stop was a local restaurant (Quan An Ngon) for some late lunch, and it was a real treat. We trusted them to order a variety of local dishes for us, and they were more than happy to show us how to go about eating them. Most notable were tasty roll-ups involving thin rice paper, tiny rice noodles, assorted greens, chunks of meat and an amazingly delicious dipping sauce. More about this remarkable restaurant later…

Properly fortified, we took a quick taxi to one of Hanoi’s premier tourist destinations, the Temple of Literature. This elaborate temple complex served as a prestigious university of higher learning for centuries, and is now truly well preserved. It is beautiful, fascinating, and an excellent reminder of the importance of education in Vietnamese culture. The names and academic accomplishments of its greatest scholars through the years are memorialized on tablets in specially designated areas. Our guides were very informative and knowledgeable, and both were eager to make sure we got as much from the experience as we could

After the temple, we asked them to return with us to the Old Quarter and just walk around showing us some of their favorite spots. Following them through the rabbit-warren of little streets was, by itself, an invaluable education in the subtle art of navigating and crossing the streets… it’s nearly effortless for a local to do it! Eventually, they asked us if we liked coffee, and we eagerly accepted their invitation to try some top-notch local coffee at their favorite coffee house. The place is so narrow that we all had to sit in single-file along a wall while they prepared our Vietnamese-style coffee. We ordered their finest kind, the Ca Phe Chon, also known as “weasel coffee.” This is because the coffee beans are (supposedly) first eaten by weasels, whose stomach enzymes mellow out the taste, and then excreted. The resulting beans are then used to prepare an impossibly rich and delicious coffee which is then blended with sweetened-condensed milk and served hot and fresh. Now, I don’t know for sure that the bizarre “processing” of this coffee is 100% on the level, but I can honestly say that it was one of the best-tasting coffee beverages I’ve ever enjoyed and I even bought a small bag to bring home. It is, quite possibly, the only expensive thing in all of Vietnam.

Our afternoon adventure with the Hanoi Kids was soon over, and we bid them a fond farewell. I doubt if they got half as much from the experience as we did, but it was definitely a positive experience and we would have no problem recommending this excellent program to anyone visiting Hanoi for the first time. Their web site: http://hanoikids.org/

ABOUT THE WATER PUPPET SHOW
Any destination guide on Hanoi that you read will make mention of the famous Thang Long water-puppet show near Hoan Kiem Lake. It’s a long-standing tradition, and everyone does it… no matter how kitschy it may sound at first blush.

Well it’s even cheesier than it sounds, but I still recommend doing it anyway. It doesn’t take very long (less than an hour), it doesn’t cost much, and the live traditional music isn’t bad. Just remember to book the show reservation in advance, because it’s pretty popular. Imagine that.

Did you end up bringing gifts from home for the Hanoi Kids guides? It sounds like they gave you a great introduction to the city.