A Search for Hanoi’s Train Street and Last Minute Shopping in Vietnam:

Mon, Jun 26, 2023 A Search for Hanoi’s Train Street and Last Minute Shopping:

Today, being the last day of our vacation, we decided to take it very easy. Our flight to Bombay was at 6.20 pm which meant we needed to be at the airport at 3.20 pm. We were flying back on a budget, no-frills airline (Viet Jet Air) which required us to pay $41 for each of our checked bags (carry-on bags were free). Llew had been trying to get this payment made online for the past couple of days but was simply not succeeding. This meant that we would need to reach the airport just a little before the counters opened, to make the payment in their office.

Accordingly, we had asked for our private taxi to arrive at our hotel at 2.30 pm to make it in time to carry out this errand. We decided to complete all our packing and get ourselves fully organized before we set out to find the last item on our agenda: A Visit to the famous Train Street that fascinates all visitors. Actually, we had not even heard of this feature as the edition of Lonely Planet that I had been using was probably not current and this phenomenon is relatively new. My friend Delilah, who is taking a similar trip to Southeast Asia in November, told me about this and asked me to investigate it, on her behalf. As it turns out, our guide Thom had mentioned this to us on the first day of our arrival in Hanoi. Not having researched it enough, we decided to save it for the last day and to cover it only if time permitted.

Last Breakfast in our Hotel:

Accordingly, we finished most of our packing but for the last-minute gifts we’d be taking for family and a couple of friends. That done, we went to the second floor for breakfast and since this was our last day in Vietnam, both Llew and I decided to have Beef Pho (Pho Bo) for breakfast together with Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk and fresh fruit (dragon fruit and water melon). Breakfast done, we went back to our rooms to pick up our maps and carry a bottle of water with us. It was our intention to walk to the Train Street from our hotel—a walk, we were told by the Receptionist, of about 15 minutes.

Walking Through Hanoi’s Old Quarter to find Train Street:

As it turned out, it took much longer than fifteen minutes as it was drizzling throughout and I was quite afraid of slipping on the wet streets. We also lost our way and, despite the map, had to ask for directions several times before we finally arrived at Phung Lung which is the street on which the train runs. This is, in fact, the very heart of Old Hanoi—so do not expect antiseptic tourist white-washing anywhere. This area is gritty, rough and ready and 100% local. We passed by an island garden that had a large sculpted monument in the center. We passed by little shops filled with tourist merchandise such as coconut and ginger candy, pandan cookies, mung bean cake with matcha (green tea) flavor. We soldiered on until the train tracks came into view. But without a tourist guide or a book to help us along, we were quite lost as we did not know what to expect.

I had done some reading in my hotel and discovered that the interest in this feature derives from the train track that runs so close to hundreds of human settlements—in fact, these homes are just inches away from the tracks. The train follows no time-table and is known to be late by as long as an hour and a half. When the phenomenon gained attention, an enterprising local lady decided to create a coffee shop on the tracks with a second-floor balcony seating patrons to sip a coffee or beer and view the fascinating spectacle below. Other entrepreneurs followed suit and a small portion (right at the end) of Train Street developed into a hip segment filled with foreign visitors especially at the times that the train is scheduled to pass by. Apart from reading about this, two days ago, I also stopped at a tourist office along the way because I was certain the staff inside would speak English. I was right. A very helpful man inside directed me precisely to the spot to which I should go. However, he checked the train timetable and confirmed what he believed to be right. There are no trains in the morning during weekdays. The only train runs in the evening after 9.00 pm. On weekends, he said, the train runs about four or five times a day. Of course, this meant that we would not see the train pass, but at least we could go to the spot where most visitors gather to see it go by. Touts swarm around to attract you to their coffee shops—of which there is a whole chain, some fancier than others. Llew and I merely took pictures at this spot and since we were still so full with our substantial breakfast and did not even have the room for coffee, we used our maps and retraced our steps back to our hotel. This was a long and very tiring walk and, being that we had been going non-stop for nearly two weeks, my energy levels were at depletion point.

Last-Minute Shopping:

However, there were some last few items we needed to buy: Now that we live in Bombay and will return home to the fury of the Indian monsoon, Llew wanted to buy one of the large, poncho-like raincoats he has been seeing all the motor-cyclists wearing here. We had not succeeded in buying one yesterday, but we thought we’d keep some time for buying it today. I also wanted to buy some candied dry ginger which I use in my carrot cake with dried ginger. Finally, we needed to buy soft candy for my brother Russel and, on our way back, we stopped at the Win Mart and picked up something we thought would work for him—mochi (or sweet mung bean cakes filled with cream). We also entered one of the specialty shops that sell tea, coffee, candy, mung bean cake, etc. and picked up a packet of assorted candies for him in mango, coconut and pandan flavors. Looking for the dried candied ginger, I was delighted to find a salesgirl who spoke really good English (because she went to school in Singapore, she said) and using her services, we were directed to a general store that would possibly carry the raincoat Llew wanted to buy.

, this place was another fifteen minutes away and by this time, we had been on our feet and walking for about three hours. I was truly exhausted! We asked her to call us a cab, which she did and, pretty soon, we were at the spot. And Lo and Behold! They did carry the raincoat Llew wanted in a variety of colors. He chose one in Burgundy and we soon bought it for $10. Sadly, they did not have my candied ginger and although we tried one last stop before giving up (they had a version of ginger in honey), eventually we did not find it.

Meanwhile, in the process of using our map and trying to find our hotel, we chanced to pass by a beautiful Catholic Church—The Church of Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs. It was set in a lovely, spacious property filled with large, impressive bonsai trees and many statues of Christian saints. We took a few pictures outside and then entered the church to pay a visit. The altar was plain but filled with the most appealing flower arrangements. This was an unexpected bonus as it was the only church we were able to visit throughout our twelve days in the Southeast.

From this point, it was a ten-minute walk back to our hotel and we reached our room and sank down with the utmost fatigue on our bed. The Receptionist told us that check out time was 12 noon but she permitted us to keep the room till 1.00 pm. We found space for our last-minute buys (indeed our bags were crammed and bulging by this time!), used the rest room for the last time in our room and made our way to the lobby. We sat down there for about an hour until our private taxi driver arrived to pick us up and drive us to the airport.

Drive to Noi Bai International Airport and Return to India: Our drive from the hotel to the airport took about an hour. We were glad to arrive earlier than planned as we had the matter of our baggage payment to take care of—we went straight to the airline office at the airport and made our payment. As soon as the traffic assistants arrived at the counter, we joined a very long line. Fortunately, we did not need to stay in it very long as they opened a counter especially for the flight to Bombay and before long, we had our boarding passes.

Yes, we still needed a few more items to buy mainly for friends. I also bought a keychain for Chriselle in place of the usual Xmas ornaments I buy her from every country we visit. She will easily be able to use it as an ornament. Some more packets of ginger candy went into our bags and allowed us to finish up the last of our Vietnamese money (dong) before we went through Security and Immigration. Next, we went into the Duty Free section to pick up our allowance of duty-free booze—not a very vast choice available, and later, we did wish we had picked it up from Bombay airport’s duty-free shops instead.

As we were aware that our budget airline did not serve meals onboard and because we were pretty hungry by this point, we looked for a place in which we could eat. We found sustenance in large bowls of pho with wagyu beef. They were just awesome and completely fit the bill. That done, it was close to boarding time and we made our way to our gate ready to board the flight.

The flight was uneventful and fairly comfortable as the aircraft was barely a quarter full. We were seated behind an exceedingly noisy family—so we simply moved seats after take-off—to a three-seater in the center. This allowed both of us to get some sleep. Llew listened to music through my ear-buds and I blogged through much of the flight. We ordered a beer which we split and with the last few of our almonds that we had carried to snack on, we had ourselves a good meal on board.

The flight length was four and a half hours long and it passed off really well. Once we landed, we cleared Immigration pretty quickly, found our bags quickly and got a pre-paid cab to take us back home. We discovered that in the two weeks of our absence, the monsoon had arrived in Bombay. The air felt damp but cool and we actually had rain as we headed on the road home.

I could not believe how excited I was to come back home to India and how welcoming Bombay felt. And we entered our flat, I was struck again by how much like home this place now feels to us, how easily and effortlessly we have slipped into our Bombay lifestyles and how much we love the privilege of being able to live in India again.

Conclusion:

Cambodia and Vietnam had been a real revelation to me. Being that I am so Eurocentric in my sensibility and aesthetics, I really did not think that I could ‘connect’ with the countries of Asia as well as I did. Time flew in the beautifully orchestrated, custom-designed trip that was well planned and executed by KimKim whom I will surely use for all our travel needs from now on.

People always ask me what the highlight of each trip is. And of course, I can never choose a single item. So here are a few aspects of our travels that will always stay with me (not necessarily in any order of importance).

1. Walking amidst the ancient stones of Angkor Wat, especially Banteay Srei.

2. Getting inside the Chu Chi Tunnels to experience Viet Cong-style guerilla warfare.

3. Incredible sweet-sour-salty-emami flavors of Southeast Asian food, especially Fish Amok (Cambodia), Bun Cha, Pho Bo, Non Thit Bo Kho (Raw Papaya Salad with Beef) and Nem Nuong Que Hoa (Summer Spring Rolls), all in Vietnam.

4. Walking on Dong Khai’s evocative historical length in Saigon and remembering the Vietnam War

5. The incredibly startling beauty of Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay

6. The unspeakable horrors of the Vietnam War as seen in the War Remnants Museum

7. Seeing the mighty Mekong River from the air.

8. Touring the Killing Fields of Cambodia at Cheoung Ek

. Taking a tuktuk ride on our own in Phnom Penh

. Taking in the treasures of the Cambodia National Museum in Phnom Penh

My appetite for Vietnam has been whetted and, having heard so much about other parts of the country (Danang, Saba, Hoi An, Hue), I don’t believe this will be my last visit there.

Lastly, I will say that I am annoyed that the interface on the Blogger Dashboard has been changed as I hate the fact that my individual paragraphs can no longer be formatted, my sub-headings do not appear separately and the total appearance of the blog post is awful. I will be spending some time trying to learn how to deal with the new interface.

Thanks for following me on this armchair-journey. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed discovering these places.

Until next time…may the road rise up to greet you!

So Long Ha Long and Hello Again Hanoi

Sun, Jun 25, 2023 So Long Ha Long and Hello Again Hanoi

As I expected, waking up in our bed on our cruise ship facing the immense picture window that offered us the most serene sight imaginable, was worth taking this entire long trip to Ha Long Bay. In the soft light of dawn, with Llew sleeping softly besides me, the rest of the world still seemed deep in slumber as I crept out of bed and grabbed my camera to take a few pictures. The air was rain-scented and soft (reminded me so much of similar dawns in Hawai’i), fragrant with a salt tang (no wonder Jo Malone has a perfume called Sea Salt and Wood Sage), the earth was quiet as if holding at bay the sounds of another new day. I was thoroughly enchanted. So enchanted was I that I slipped out of our room, walked a few steps to the door that led straight to the back deck and standing on the prow took some selfies of me, a la Titanic. I breathed in the purity of the air while surrounded by limestone karsts—conical rocks—that stood like silent sentinels to protect me. It was an inexplicably peaceful feeling of knowing in the back of my head that God’s in His Heaven, All’s Right with the World.

But then it was time for Llew to awake too and for us to get ready for a very early breakfast—yes, at 6.15am, we were all assembled in the restaurant to have breakfast. Strong coffee and juice were provided as were Danish rolls, chocolate muffins, toast with preserves and fruit—an excellent Continental breakfast. We helped ourselves quite liberally as we had another boating excursion ahead of us.

Boating Excursion to Dark and Light Cave in Lan Ha Bay:

One of the things you notice about the limestone karsts at Ha Long Bay is that they have natural caves in their base. Visiting these caves is, of course, only possible by small rowing boat or kayak and almost every overnight cruise operator includes a visit to at least one cave as part of the program. Our operator, La Pandora Cruises, went the extra mile, literally. Instead of taking us to a cave in Ha Long Bay itself, it took us to another bay—Lan Ha Bay—which is on the outer rim of Ha Long Bay and is a part of the Cat Ba National Park.

So, of course, each of us jumped from our cruise ship to the small boat attached at the back and sailed at dawn, in the quiet light of the morning, to Lan Ha Bay. There, we found ourselves surrounded by the same limestone karsts as the sky brightened. It was still damp and drizzly—which made Kevin provide each of us with one of those flimsy, plastic, disposable raincoats—which only I seemed to actually wear (I hated getting wet as raindrops spatter my eye-glasses and make it hard for me to see).

From our small boat, we were directed into a pontoon that served as another boating pier. We were shepherded into small rowing boats—six people in one boat—and off we went deep into the heart of Lan Ha Bay. We were heading to Dark and Light Cave which we saw ahead of us. Our boatman was a sweet young lad who directed us to switch sides in order to keep the boat in balance. He provided us with the bamboo conical Vietnamese hats as the drizzle got more persistent. But soon we came to the mouth of the cave that rose in a wide arch ahead of us. It was clear to see that the middle of the arch was pitch-dark while light streamed into the cave at the other end. Several boats were in the sheltered bay at this time and many of the boaters were singing songs as the closed walls of the cave-tunnel provided fine echoing acoustics.

Slowly, very gently, the only sounds being the swishing of the oars, we were rowed through the cave. Up above us, we could see the naturally varied colors of the granite rock and the slight vegetation growing out of them—wondrously. Some of the rocks hung down like stalactites and made for a really beautiful scene. Once we passed through the tunnel, we were on the other side of the bay where light streamed down upon us as a good hour had passed since we had first set out on our dawn excursion. Other than describing the set-up as ethereal, I simply cannot find a word to describe what I was feeling as I took in the scene.

We were rowed around the other side of the bay before we made our way back to the pier and into our boat. While going through the tunnel this time round, I asked my boat companions to sing—to hear the echo of our voices as we passed through it. I began singing ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’ and my companions joined in and I followed it with ‘Michael Row The Boat Ashore’. I had a bunch of game companions (especially the Malaysian family) plus Thomas and Brenda who were part of our fun. Thomas then entered into a long discussion with me about Bollywood songs because, as it happens, he is a Lata Mangeshkar-Asha Bhonse fan! Who’d have guessed it? A man from the Czech Republic, partnered with a gal from Mexico, now living in Singapore and vacationing in Vietnam was a Bollywood music fan! It reminded me so much of the time I was on the train from Tashkent to Samarkhand in Uzbekistan sharing the wagon with a bunch of big, burly, elderly Uzbeks drinking schnapps and eating pierogi who, seeing that I was an Indian, burst out into Bol Radha Bol Sangam song from the Raj Kapoor film Sangam followed by Mera Jhoota Hai Japani from Raj Kapoor’s Awara! It was one of the most amazing experiencing of my life and I felt like it was deja-vu all over again when Thomas began to hum the tune of a Lata Mangeshwar song and then the Malaysian lady said she knew a Hindi song called Jago Re! My goodness! You can just imagine what an out-of-world experience this was for me.

Return to the Cruise Ship for Brunch:

A little later, leaving the delights of Lan Ha Bay behind us, we were steered back to our cruise ship at Ha Long Bay. Kevin directed us to finish our packing and leave our bags outside our doors to be picked up by the crew. I took Llew to the prow of the ship so that we could take the mandatory Titanic pictures together—just for fun, of course—before we returned to our cabin. There was time for showers and a quick change before we were all to meet again for dinner in the restaurant. Kevin called it Brunch, but it turned out to be a full lunch indeed.

Brunch was a wonderfully warming bowl of tomato soup with toast croutons, a starter of grilled shrimp with an accompanying coleslaw, a brilliantly done bit of beef steak served with broccoli and roast potato and a delicious pepper sauce, braised chicken with vegetables served with a rice cake and gravy and dessert of fresh fruit (dragon fruit and pineapple). During lunch, we joined the Australian ladies at their table and Eman pointed out a mountain goat to me on one of the islands—it was tiny, and its white back was all I could see. They called it brunch because it was just 11.00 am, but it was a full five-course lunch indeed and it was scrumptious. It totally filled us up for the long journey back to Hanoi that we would undertake as the rain came down.

Journey Back to Hanoi:

So we said our goodbyes and thank-yous to the ship’s crew leaving our tips for them of course, as they had been exceptional in the service they had provided. We boarded our smaller boat and were steered through the Bay in the rain that kept streaming down the window panes and required us to shut them as we were well sprayed by it.

We did arrive at the harbor and returned to the chaos of the general world after being cloistered from its worries, care and anxieties for a good two days. About fifteen minutes later, our coach arrived and Lelw and I were fortunate enough again to get the two seats right at the front that offered us a great view of the road ahead of us. We made one rest room stop at a rest area where we picked up chocolate popsicles studded with roasted almonds—delicious.

Once in Hanoi, a good two hours later, we were the last ones to be dropped off at our hotel. Most of the others had alighted before us as they reached their own hotels. Llew and I checked again into the Flower Garden Hotel and made ourselves comfortable. Throughout the time we had been at Ha Long Bay, we had been in touch with Dat, our travel assistant, to book a Walking Street Food Tour of Hanoi that my friend Delilah had recommended. As it turned out, Dat came through for us quite splendidly and, by the time, we checked into the Flower Garden Hotel, our tour for the evening was confirmed. We would be meeting our tour guide at 6.00 pm in the lobby of our hotel. This left us with about an hour to relax and even take a short nap.

The Absolute Delights of a Walking Street Food Tour in Hanoi:

When we went down to the hotel lobby at 6.00 pm, we found our guy Kenny waiting for us. He turned out to be an absolutely lovely fellow, who (thank heavens) had perfect English and was effortlessly communicative. We had paid $21 each for the tour and it included a taxi ride which took us to the heart of Old Hanoi from where we would go from one place to another tasting a variety of Vietnamese foods.

During the course of our time with Kenny, we discovered that he was 21 years old, learned English as a child from his mother who used to be an airline stewardess, that both his parents today run a Vietnamese restaurant in which he also works, that he has a girlfriend whom he would be meeting for dinner at the end of the evening and that he has been doing these tours for the past couple of years. Well, he was just splendid and we had a fantastic evening in his company.

Kenny started us off by taking us for Bun Cha (Rice Noodles with Grilled Pork in Pork stock) served with Salad Greens and Herbs. We told him that we’d eaten Bun Cha at the “Obama Place” where it was superb but he assured us that this version, in a place actually called Buncha, was far better. And indeed, Kenny was right. The Buncha here was to-die-for. When we discovered that we had four or five more places to go and foods to try out, Llew decided to go easy, but I was greedy enough to finish my whole bowl—it was that good. We also told Kenny to take us walking to the rest of the places so that we could get some exercise before we tucked into the next course. Unlike Hueng Lien’s (aka The Obama Place), this place is a modern restaurant with a lovely upper storey where you sit at long wooden communal tables. The décor is very elegant and very homely at the same time, and we enjoyed just being there.

En route to the next place, when we were actually passing through a street market, I asked Kenny if he could find me dried shitake mushrooms that I could take home with me to India. He did not know what they were. I used Google Translate to help him find the Vietnamese word for them and he knew immediately what they were. He then led me to a grocery place where he spoke in Vietnamese to the saleswoman and got me a whole lot of shitake mushrooms. I will use them in soups, stews, spring rolls, etc. just as I did in the US where I would buy them in plastic bags. Just next door to this shop was another that sold Fermented Ready-to-Eat Fish & Seafood for the local population. There was whole fish rubbed with spices that would be taken home and fried and a number of tiny shrimp made into pickle-like concoctions which Kenny told us are ready to eat.

Our next stop was at a place called Nom Thit Bo Kho where we sat on small plastic stools, in traditional style, to enjoy another one of Vietnam’s contributions to global gastronomy --Steamed Beef & Beef Jerky Salad w/Raw Papaya and Roasted Peanuts, another absolute winner. Llew, who does not eat papaya, was doubtful he would like the dish. But I assured him the salad was made of raw papaya and he would not even realize he was eating papaya. I turned out to be correct. Llew loved the dish. The roasted peanuts on the top, two kinds of beef (steamed and jerky) and the delightful dressing combined to make for a marvelous dish. Kenny explained that the dressing is very simple to make if one has the right ingredients: sugar (sweet), lime juice (sour), soya sauce (salt), chilli flakes (hot/spicy), fish sauce (emami) are combined according to one’s taste and poured over thinly slivered vegetables all over Southeast Asia to make these amazing salads. Because there is no added oil, they are also light and healthy. We sat down on the stool inside and merrily tucked into the salad bowl before us.

By this time, we were near the periphery of the lake—so we requested Kenny to walk with us around a bit so that we could digest each course before moving onto the next. He obliged and, in a short time, we were at the next port of call: Nem Nuong Nha Trang Que Hoa for Vietnamese Summer Rolls—you fix your own with the provision in a large tray of Rice Paper Wrappers, whole lettuce leaves, grilled pork, sticky rice, raw mango, cucumber, fresh herbs… eaten with a satay-style peanut dipping sauce. They were just amazing. You have the added joy of making them on your own and experiencing the variation of texture in your mouth. The sauce was simply superb and again, we could not quite get enough of it. We could have eaten two rolls each (at least), but we stopped at one each as we were certainly beginning to feel really full and Kenny kept reminding us that we still had Pho to go through. As we know that Pho involves another big bowl of noodles in broth, we were hesitant to eat any more. And good job we didn’t!

The next stop on our agenda was a place called Pho Ga (Chicken Pho) with rice noodles, chicken broth, lime juice, herbs. We had to dodge really bad traffic to get to the little place which was tiny and contained the little plastic stool on small tables once again. Kenny explained that this Pho would be different from the vast bowls we had been consuming, This Pho would be dry, he said, but would contain the same flavor. When our big bowl arrived, we found that it looked like a large bowl of flat, thick, cooked rice noodles thickly sprinkled with fried onions, bean sprouts and coriander springs. The broth was provided in a smaller bowl on the side. If you found your noodles too dry, you were free to use the broth to moisten them—which was entirely what I did. They were amazingly good, but the thought of going through another whole bowl of noodles was just too much for us. We ate a quite hearty portion of it and decided to call a halt.

Kenny then took us to the next place: literally a street-side shack (not even a restaurant or a shop) where a woman provided what Kenny called dried Dracontomelon Juice. This came in large plastic glasses with lots of ice. It was super refreshing. Neither one of us had heard of this juice before and we were glad to learn and taste something so out-of-the-ordinary on this trip. It’s a small, light green stone fruit (like an apricot) but is called a melon (a real misnomer, methinks) and is native to Southeast Asia.

Finally, for our last stop, which Kenny called “Dessert”, he took us to Café Giang to taste Egg Coffee. Now this was an item that I found advertised in so many of the coffee shops all over Vietnam. I had not known, before I arrived in the country, that Vietnam is the world’s second greatest consumer of coffee after Brazil! Who knew? It turned out that coffee plants are grown on the hills of the north on huge coffee estates. The Vietnamese have varied ways of serving coffee—the best known are with condensed milk and with coconut milk (they call it Coconut Coffee). What has really soared to fame, however, is Egg Coffee, thanks to Mr Giang, who in the 1940s, ran a modest coffee joint in Hanoi. One fine day, he ran short of milk and simply substituted an egg yolk inside (leaving out the white). He beat the yolk till creamy and made it the base of a strong coffee—and thus was born the famous Egg Coffee. It is a sweet, creamy, very unique concoction that is absolutely delicious. When the coffee proved to be such a hit, Mr, Giang created Egg Chocolate—hot chocolate made with the same creamy beaten egg yolk--and we enjoyed both of them very much.

Mr. Giang’s Café, the one we visited, is the original cafe from where the first Egg Coffees were made. Tourists kept trooping in with large walking tour groups and we were absolutely delighted when one of them brought our friends Natalie, Cate and Eman with it. We had tried all evening to connect with them as it was we who had told them about the food tour and had invited them to join ours. It turned out that even though they joined a tour by the same company, they were assigned another large group while Llew and I were on a separate tour, completely private, with just Kenny and us.

Well, by this time, we were well and truly full. Our friends’ group was heading off for dessert—they were going for Vietnamese ice-cream, which I would have dearly loved to taste. But Kenny told us that the Juice stop was on our tour and not on their’s. Hence, they had ice-cream and we did not. Apart from this disappointment, it was an incredible experience! The food was absolutely scrumps! The entire walking tour was in the atmospheric warren of narrow streets in the Old Quarter of Hanoi (a bit like Bombay’s Bhendi Bazaar but much cleaner!) The many tourists we saw taking the food tour made us feel really thrilled that we had taken it. It is a unique and absolutely delish gastronomic experience and a Hanoi Must-Do!

All that was left was for us to call a taxi (Kenny did it) that would take us back to our hotel where we reached in ten minutes, to take our showers and go off to sleep.

It had been another incredible day and we were so pleased with the many cultural experiences we had enjoyed in this busy city that never seems to sleep.

Until tomorrow…

Good Bye Saigon and Hello Hanoi—Our Travels in Vietnam Continue

Fri, Jun 2023 Good Bye Saigon and Hello Hanoi—Our Travels in Vietnam Continue

Knowing we had another lovely long day ahead of us, Llew and I decided to set our alarms, wake up early, go to breakfast with enough time to linger over the delicious Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk and then go down to the lobby to check out of the hotel for the next leg of our travels.

Breakfast was another delicious bowl of Pho Bo (Beef Pho) for me as I simply cannot get enough of this amazing concoction. Followed with the said coffee and fresh fruit, it makes for a most satisfying meal. Llew followed suit and together we had ourselves a splendid breakfast while seated at the corner picture window that offered 180 degree views of the city of Saigon. We’d really enjoyed Saigon and had fully connected with its colonial history and its post-colonial spirit of resilience and achievement. Truly, it is a modern, affluent, organized Asian city, and in many ways, reminded us of places like Singapore, Shanghai and Seoul. I was actually just a tiny bit sorry to say Sayonara to Saigon, but I was also excited about the rest of the adventures in store for us.

Flight to Hanoi:

Our pick-up guide and driver arrived on schedule and, in no time at all, we were driving to the airport, really grateful to have the convenience of these arrangements that made our travel stress-free. Once at the airport, we checked in a bag each and walked with our carry-ons into the airport for our Vietjet Air flight—only an hour long. It flew by, of course, and very shortly, we were touching down in the capital of Northern Vietnam, Hanoi. There, we were met by our guide, a sweet young chap who told us his name was Thom but told us to call him Bobby. He saw us into our private cab and off we speeded to our next hotel, the Flower Garden Hotel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. There, we were greeted warmly by Reception staff, served a lovely welcome drink and provided keys to our room.

Thom told us to get settled and to relax a bit in our room and he would be back about an hour later to begin our tour of the city of Hanoi with us.

Touring the City of Hanoi:

Right off the bat, in fact, as we were driving from the airport to our hotel, it was very obvious to us that Hanoi and Saigon are two very different cities. While Saigon is mainly spiffy and obviously high-tech, Hanoi is old, traditional, run-down. On our tour of the city which occurred throughout the afternoon, we received a very good sense of its old-world flavor. In fact, since our hotel was located right in the Old Quarter, we fully absorbed the flavor and local color—both of which are available in abundance.

The Extensive Ho Chi Minh Complex:

The biggest attraction in Hanoi is the Ho Chi Minh Complex, a vast spread of beautifully landscaped gardens in which the most important monuments and buildings of the city are located. A short drive from our hotel dropped us off in the parking lot from where we footed it with Thom, going past the modern Parliament House on our left. We were unable to enter it as it is closed to visitors. We gathered, soon enough, that most of the buildings are closed and visitors are only allowed to enter a couple of them. This has largely to do with the fact that it is not the tourist season—apparently when there are visitors in great numbers, they are allowed inside.

Inside the complex, the most striking building and the most regal one, is the strangely painted mustard colonial President’s Palace building which used to be the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Hanoi during the French colonial regime. I loved the striking bones of its architecture, built very much in the French chateau-style. After Independence, it became the official residence in Hanoi of the presidents of the country; but HCM who adopted the principles of austere living, started the trend of retaining the building only for foreign visitors or emissaries. The building sits in a really serene spot—there is nothing grand about it, but it is regal and extremely appealing.

Literally next door to the European aesthetic of this building is another one, a far more modest one. This was the sedate building that HCM chose for his Residence. It consists of a simple bedroom, a living room and a dining room. Few visitors entered these premises because HCM did not marry, staying single all his life and, therefore, did not entertain. The only indulgence he permitted himself are the wonderfully impressive cars that were presented to him by the Soviet Union as he was a great champion of Communism. They sit in individual garages today, gleaming with the weight of history behind them. Many a visiting dignitary was ferried around the city in one of these cars.

It was a lovely walk around the periphery of a great artificial lake that brought us over to the other side where we saw yet another two-storey building that HCM used as his office. On the top floor, is his bedroom and office and on the lower level is a large table surrounded by chairs. In this space, he conducted his party meetings, had high-level discussions with other heads of state, etc.

Leaving the building behind us, we walked along a vast grove of pomelo trees—each drooping with the weight of huge, ripe citrus fruit. This walk took us towards the most important building in the complex—HCM’s Mausoleum. You cannot miss this stunning building when you are driving by it. It is shaped like a Greek temple and reminds you vaguely of the Parthenon, except that it is made of grey granite rather than white marble. In point of fact, there is nothing Grecian about it—it is, in fact, modelled on the mausoleum and final resting place of Lenin, HCM’s fervent hero, in Moscow. Once again, we were informed that we could not enter the building although tourists are allowed in the high season.

A few short steps then took us forward to one of the most famous structures in Hanoi, the ancient One-Pillar Pagoda which is over a thousand years old. It is still a holy place of Buddhist worship and attracts many visitors as its design is so unusual. Indeed, it rises out of a small enclosed pond on a single broad pillar—the pagoda-pattern on the top is the only indication of its sacred purpose. It could easily pass for a very large dove cote. At the top of a short flight of stairs is the main altar with a statue of the Buddha and the entire structure is strung with prayer flags.

Viewing the Vast Precincts of the Temple of Literature:

The next stop of our tourist agenda was a visit to the equally famous Temple of Literature. This massive complex reminded us very much of the many Buddhist temples we had seen in Kyoto and Tokyo in Japan as well as in China. They are deceptively small from the outside. It is only when you enter inside that you realize there is ‘room’ after ‘room’, each of which is set in lovely mature gardens with well established and very impressively tall trees.

Thom explained that the Temple of Literature is dedicated to Confucius, the Chinse scholar whose interpretation of traditional Buddhism spawned a whole new denomination of the religion—Confucianism-- which is a highly popular form of spirituality even today. The temple is especially popular with students who visit it to pray for success in their exams or to find good employment.

As you enter through the main gate, you will see Chinese motifs on the two side walls—one features a dragon, another a white tiger (both associated with China). Inside, there are a few remarkable gates, doorways and structures that speak of the fervent architectural activity that was carried out in Vietnam over a thousand years ago when Chinese influence was established in the country. Of particular interest is a pagoda that features on the 100,000 Dong note.

When we entered the last structure, we found it milling with faithful devotees, especially young ones. They were carrying offerings with them and bending down in prayer. Confucius was depicted, in a towering statue, on the main altar and is flanked by contemporary Chinese scholars of Buddhism who adopted his interpretations of the religion and took it far and wide across the Eastern world. The air was filled with incense and was highly atmospheric.

The ‘Obama Combo’ for Lunch:

By this point, Llew and I were both rather hungry. It was about 5.00 pm and our last meal had been breakfast—a large breakfast but it had been a tiring day and we needed refueling. We told Thom to suggest a place where we could have a late lunch-early dinner and, without batting an eyelid, he suggested Hueng Lien’s, a very nondescript noodle house that sold the best Bun Cha in town.

So, a word about Bun Cha: Bun Cha is Vietnamese for Noodles with Pork (Bun is Noodles, Cha is Pork). It is eaten throughout the day and you cannot mistake the vast number of restaurants and small eateries all over town that advertise this dish. Now, as it happened, President Obama had made a trip to Vietnam and, being a fan of the late TV chef and food writer, Anthony Bourdain, he had requested the foodie to take him on a walking tour of Hanoi’s special joints. For Bun Cha, Bourdain had recommended Hueng Lien’s. And presto, before you could say Ho Chi Minh, this place soared in fame and fortune. In fact, Bourdain did a special episode of his cookery show called Parts Unknown featuring Obama in Hanoi.

Today, troops of tourists file into the tiny place that is extremely no-frills. You sit, Vietnamese-style, on low, backless, plastic stools (not the most comfortable seats, to be sure) and tuck into the ‘Obama Special’. This consists of a large bowl of grilled pork, cut into thin slices and served in a broth that has been simmering forever. A bowl of white soft rice noodles is offered on the side. There is also a large plate of salad greens. As if this were inadequate, there is a very large, super-filled fried spring roll. And to drink? You are served a can of cold beer. You dunk the noodles and the greens into the bowl of broth and enjoy!

How was it? Awesome. The broth is so flavorful and the noodles so filling and the herbs offering such a fresh burst of taste and spice (there is plenty of Thai basil) that you simply cannot stop eating. Llew and I thought our first introduction to Bun Cha was splendid and we simply could not stop thanking Thom for introducing us to such a delightful place. I believe our entire meal cost $7.

Our sightseeing frenzy was over for the day and Thom dropped us off at the Hoan Kiem Lake which is a popular place for locals to gather. In the center of the lake is the Turtle Temple—also ancient, as we could easily discern. The lights came on around the lake and cast lovely colorful reflections in the water. We said goodbye to Thom and decided to take a walk along one of the small fruit markets nearby so that we could buy and taste the local fruit. We ended up buying longans, mangosteen and rambutan—we had plenty of litchies in Bombay (so we did not buy those). We also walked through a long coveryed market by the lakeside which offered all manner of local eats and novelties including the strong-smelling durian fruit.

Long Walk Back to Our Hotel:

It was finally time for us to call it a day. We had walked a lot and were ready to return to our hotel. Thom had told us it would take us 15-20 minutes, but it turned out to be more like 45-by which time I was thoroughly pooped. We walked for the most part (after we left the periphery of the lake) along a single long street that was filled with street kiosks and stalls as part of a street market. On the weekends, these vendors stay up until 11.00 pm. Being that it was a week day, they were beginning to close shop at about 7.30. These street markets are local markets that attract non-tourists. We took in the abundance of local color and finally reached our hotel.

All that was left was for us to have our showers and get ready for bed after watching TV which confirmed that the crew of the Titan had all died in a likely implosion that took place soon after they began their descent into the ocean. It was such a sobering and sad way to end our day!

Until tomorrow…