a rocky start
My first time traveling alone to another country, I went to visit my good friend Huong in Hanoi. She was one of my closest friends in Tokyo and she lived upstairs at our tiny apartment. We spent a lot of time watching kung-fu movies and sharing quiet meals together. She had recently just moved back to Vietnam due to some circumstances outside of her control and I was bringing her some of the things she left back at her old place.
Just before getting on the flight, my AirBnB host cancelled on me last minute due to some time misunderstanding and I had to ask Huong to book me a place before I boarded my plane.
with strange company
I arrived pretty late past midnight and had a taxi driver approach me. Huong talked to the driver through my phone and I ended up in a taxi with him and got dropped me off in some shady area. I wasn’t expecting to switch rides and thought I would be staying in this car the whole time but I ended up in a different car with two guys that were pretty shady. My mind was racing a bit and I thought I got tangled up in some Vietnamese gangsters, the driver had full on body tattoos and fingernails longer than an animals.
I eventually warmed up to them as we communicated with Google Translate and had some fun back and forth. They even helped me find my hostel and knocked hard on the locked gate for me, something I couldn’t do alone. I was just happy to be able to get some rest.
wake up call
The hostel started to get noisy around early morning because of the construction since 5AM. I tried to get some sleep in but it was impossible and I was feeling so faded.
Huong arrived around 9 and I stepped foot outside to see Hanoi for the first time in daylight. It was beautiful, morning air was fresh and there was still some fog around which added a lot of drama. I rode behind Huong on her scooter as she took me to eat pho for breakfast at the Old Quarter. She insisted that this was the real pho and none of that stuff we ate in Japan could compare.
I went ahead and booked a very nice hotel for myself afterwards, there’s no way I was sleeping in that noisy hostel again. It was still quite affordable and very fancy looking. Huong and I decided to meet there so she got me a taxi driver as she sped away on her scooter. I ended up getting scammed some money from the taxi driver as we didn’t check beforehand about the pricing, lesson learned, it was our bad but I didn’t mind.
huong's happiness is my happiness
We had a very good Vietnamese lunch, different types of food, from nem cuon to all these vegetable based meals. I honestly just let Huong do all the ordering and I did all the eating. It was so nice to finally see her again, she was happier. Today’s itinerary was all on her, I literally just came here to see if she was doing well and to give her back her things. All the sight-seeing was a bonus. The only thing I requested was to see this water puppet show and she made reservations for us.
sight-seeing in hanoi
We went to see various sights around the city with me just sitting behind Huong on her scooter. We started with Hoan Kiem Lake, Huong told me of the legend involving a turtle, a king and a magic sword.
She also took me to Hoa Lo Prison Relic, a museum showcasing how the prisoners were treated during the war. It was quite disturbing featuring a wide variety of torture paraphernalia and even a live showcasing of how a guillotine works. The museum also had the different trapdoors the Viet Cong used back in the day.
We also went to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, a place she was quite proud of. Vietnamese women across the ages and various fields from medicine to military to their traditional dresses and fashion. It was a very learning experience.
We passed through the Temple of Literature on the way to the Vietnam Ethnology Museum, one of the places that I particularly liked. Huong used to work here part-time as a guide so she was able to really show me around well. The museum was well-maintained and had a huge collection. The main highlight were the traditional houses in the outdoor exhibit. These houses were some of the biggest I have ever seen in my life, it seemed like a whole community lived under one roof. There were also a lot of these quite naughty exposed statues as well, perhaps a celebration of fertility?
riding a scooter through hanoi's traffic was terrifying
I tried to ride Huong’s scooter but backed out. It was too frightening and most of the time, I was also nervous as hell. Clinging on for dear life as Huong effortlessly swerved through traffic and fit in through these tiny spaces in between cars. It seems like the scooter really was the most versatile vehicle but it was just too overwhelming for me. Some intersections had no traffic lights at all and there would be hundreds of scooters from all directions just clashing.
I looked behind and saw just an endless stream of scooters, in front, and at the side as well just like a street race with people trying to overtake each other, and this is not even mentioning the cars yet.
While going from point A to point B, I literally saw 3 friggin accidents happen so no, I’m not overexaggerating when I say it’s hella chaotic up in Hanoi. The sound of a helmet cracking against the tires of a car left a chill up my spine. Another accident involved a broken side-mirror and another scooter that slid across the road. I was quite traumatized by then, riding a scooter around Hanoi was a wild experience but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t exhilirating.
the water puppet show
Before heading to the Water Puppet Show at Thang Long Theatre, we tried to go to this classy restaurant that Huong was quite adamant on visiting but it had actually closed down. We ended up in a more authentic place by the streets eating bun bo hue which was a much better experience for me.
To end the night, we watched the water puppet show, a traditional performance that really encapsulated Vietnamese culture. It was really unique even though I didn’t understand anything as it was all in Vietnamese, I really enjoyed the folk music which was done by live, the narration and voice overs were really funny and I couldn’t help but laugh along as the rest of the theatre roared with laughter. The puppets themselves were mesmerizing as they glided across the water, one of the dragon puppets was even spewing fire!
I was really happy today, Huong took me back to my hotel and told me that I had to wake up early as we were going on a daytrip to Trang An, I was feeling so tired from yesterday still but I did tell her I would do my best.
