Normandy Adventures: Rainy and Cold Hanoi

Norm:

After some amazing experiences in Chiang Mai, it was time to move onto the second country in our South East Asia trip - Vietnam. We actually had to fly back to Bangkok to catch the flight to Hanoi. We arrived at the hotel fairly late and after we checked in, the obvious first meal of Vietnam has to be pho! We went to Pho 10, one of the acclaimed pho places in Hanoi. The pho was actually really good - the noodles were fresh and the broth was full of flavor, though from the outside, I doubt it would ever pass a health inspection in Canada. I took a slight risk and even ordered the "half-done beef" while Mandy played it more safe and ordered the well-done beef. We walked a little while around the city, but it was raining heavily and was actually fairly cold even for Canadian standards, so we retired early.

(Mandy's side note: We stayed at the Hanoi Elegance Ruby Hotel and it was the BEST hotel we've ever stayed in. The room we booked was not large but it was very clean and the shower amazing. They even gave us fruit and a lap top to use in our room. The best part of the hotel was the service! Highly recommend!!)

Plops on the bed immediately

Pho + deep fried dough + beer

Kitchen

Rainy streets of Hanoi

Roundabout

So cold and rainy!

I'm a millionaire!!

The next day we had a tour with Hanoi Kids, a program where local university students who want to practice their English, take you around the city and act as tour guides. Our friendly guides were knowledgeable and gave us the local perspective on Vietnamese culture and cuisine. We first went to the Hao Lo prison, an early 20th century prison for Vietnamese dissidents of French colonialism. The prison was so barbaric, it was also known as "Hell on Earth". The prison was closed in 1993 and made into the museum today.

Hao Lo Prison Memorial Wall

Afterwards, we went to the French quarter, to see a photography exhibit of Hanoi between 1913-1917. The photographs really illustrated the stark difference of the country at that time. The lake near our hotel was surrounded by greenery, but now resembled what a typical developed Asian country looks like. From then, it was enough of local attractions and we went to sample some local cuisine and food. We went to a restaurant and tried many of the traditional Vietnamese dishes (except for pho). Unfortunately, Mandy and I weren't feeling super well for most of that day, so we had to cut our Hanoi kids tour short and went home to the hotel to get some rest. We ended up sleeping from 2pm basically until the next day, haha. The only reason we woke up was to shower and pack because we had our Ha Long Bay tour the next morning. Hopefully we will normalize and enjoy the rest of beautiful Hanoi!

(Mandy's side note: Norm forgot to mention the egg coffee and egg hot chocolate we had in Hanoi. It's apparently their specialty to replace the milk component of the drink with egg. It was actually very delicious, tasted more like a dessert than a drink. Also, Norm underplayed how awful I felt. At the beginning of the day I was feeling okay but by the time we went to the egg cafe and then to the restaurant afterwards, I was dying. My stomach was twisting and turning but I didn't want to miss out on the tasty food so I forced myself to eat it. Honestly at lunch I almost puked 0__0)