I will admit that I knew nothing about Vietnam before going nor was it on my bucket list. Even though people who had been to Vietnam before had great things to say about it for the most part, I was still skeptical if I would like the country.
We ended up loving our short time in Vietnam. If we could have extended our stay longer, we would have! Definitely a place we would love to visit and explore again as we only saw two cities during our time there.
Hanoi
It won’t come as a surprise that our favorite thing to do in new cities is just walk around. After leaving Bali, we were excited to finally have sidewalks to walk on. Little did we know that strolling down sidewalks was still going to be a rarity in Vietnam. Most areas in front of stores/restaurants are used for dining with the little tables and chairs placed outside or motorbike parking. So most of the time you just say whatever and walk on the road and pray a motorbike doesn’t run over your feet.
While on the topic of walking around, it is a game of Frogger when crossing the street in Vietnam. There are crosswalks but you don’t wait for all the cars to stop for you to cross…they never will stop. To cross the street you simply walk across and the cars will maneuver around you. It is amazing the spacial awareness that drivers have here. The rules we learned when crossing the street: don’t run, don’t stare, don’t stop. You don’t run so you’re not taking cars by surprise by sprinting across the street. Don’t stare at the driver as it plays another mental game between you and the driver. Don’t stop as you just become part of the flow of traffic at that point.
Hanoi Food Tour
Our favorite part of Vietnam in whole was the food. We have had pho before, but there is so much more than pho when it comes to Vietnamese cuisine. One of the best decisions we made on this trip was join a food tour hosted by a local of Hanoi. For three hours you walk around the old quarter of Hanoi, trying street food along the way. We had quail eggs, banh mi, Vietnamese coffees (egg and coconut), pho, bun cha, mango sticky rice (my favorite), and so much more. We did the food tour on our second night in Hanoi which helped us tremendously when figuring out what and where to eat for the rest of our trip. Besides the food, we got to meet some nice people (which is always fun when you have been hanging out every second of the day only with your significant other) and learn more about the history of Vietnam/Hanoi.
After that food tour we were a lot more confident when picking out places to eat and drink coffee. One night when looking for a specific restaurant (which ended up being closed) we had a fun dining experience which included our own little propane single burner, fish, salad, and noodles. The guy who helped us order knew we were very much out of our comfort zone so he helped us put together all of the food and heat up the fish and veggies on the single burner. While it was always intimidating being the only people who had no idea what we were doing, the locals were always very kind to help us out.
If you follow us on Instagram you would have already seen that our main dish for breakfast was pho. Here you have to throw out the idea of having a Western breakfast and jump right in to steaming hot pho with a fried dough stick for your morning meal. Even though it was 100+ degrees outside, everyone was having pho.
Everyone asks “what did you do” for X city or Y country and I’m running out of ways to say that 90% of our time is spent walking and eating with a few sight seeing things in between. Vietnam was no different, but here are a couple of things we did do besides walking and eating:
Visit Ngoc Son Temple
In the midst of chaos you can visit this little temple on the lake and walk around. The inside of the temple doesn’t allow photos but it was very beautiful to see. As we walked around we saw a lady burning Vietnamese money (I think it was fake money, but Nathan thinks it was real). Which she was doing as an offering or whatever else it could be.
Dong Xuan Market
Imagine taking a small mall in America, removing the stores and just having booths everywhere. So many booths with things overflowing that you only have about two feet of walking in between booths. That would be how I describe Dong Xuan Market. You can buy almost anything from clothes to dried fish in this market and it was wild to walk around there.
Train Street
This is 1,000% a tourist trap, but we went anyway. Every day this train makes its way through Hanoi. What makes it fun to see is when it goes down a part of the city where cafes and shops are right next to the train tracks. It gets so close that you feel as if the train will hit you at any moment. There are people taking photos left and right on the train tracks, but as soon as the train starts coming the bullhorn siren goes off and the coffee shop owners make sure you are tucked away and off the tracks.
Other Snaps From Hanoi
- The streets during the day and at night.
- The juxtaposition of very old and very new was everywhere.
- Hidden coffee shop that required climbing up some questionable stairs to reach the second or third floor.
- Another market which just had raw meat chilling in the heat.
- New friend at the convenience store.
- Nathan got a great $4 haircut!
- Post cards that never made it to the U.S.
Hoi An
Our second part of our trip in Vietnam was spent in the little town of Hoi An. This certainly is a more of a touristy town but was worth it to spend a couple of days here. I was sick with a cold for most of the time we spent in Hoi An so that was not fun, but we still explored the town with rest breaks throughout the day. No different that Hanoi, we tried new foods that were more common in the area of Vietnam.
Hoi An is still a little chaotic but with a smaller town, it was easier to move around. The homestay we staying at had bikes that we could use so we explored a lot of Hoi An through biking. Just like our favorite time in Ubud, Bali, we had a great time biking through the rice fields.
BBQ Chicken, Hoi An Style
One night we wanted to try this “bbq chicken” restaurant thinking it would be just chicken on skewers that were grilled. When we sat down and ordered, we realized we were only half right. While you do get 12 skewers of chicken that have been grilled with sauce, you also create a little bbq chicken spring roll with the skewers. Again the people of Vietnam can always tell when we have zero clue what we do and were always happy to help. One of the restaurant owners brought our food out and taught us how to make these bbq chicken spring rolls which I’m sure she found entertaining to watch us. The food was delicious and just another unexpected dining experience.
Lantern Festival On The River
One of the more comical parts of Hoi An was watching everyone in these little boats with tiny “lanterns” at night time. I imagined a huge lantern festival but it was a very dimmed down version of that but still fun to see regardless. We were in Hoi An during the shoulder season but that area of town at night came to life with crowds and people trying to sell you something everywhere. While it sounds terrible, we actually had a fun time just people watching and accepted that we were part of the crowd so better to just join in. Also we found out that people in Hoi An LOVE karaoke…so much so that there was someone performing and singing every other restaurant at night. Not to mention the one local who started his karaoke session at 8 in the morning with his singing echoing throughout the town (it was quite comical). So if karaoke and performing for your fellow dinner guests is your thing, go to Hoi An.
Everything Else
Here are some more photos of our time in Ha Noi
- The beach we biked to (spent about two hours biking around the city and Nathan got some rad sun burns on his back to show for it)
- The boats that you can rent at night on the river
- One of the ladies working at her stall in the market
- A random restaurant we went to that was fantastic. 95% of the restaurants we went to looked like this inside, nothing fancy just here for the food.
Overall
We had a great time in Vietnam (besides me being sick the second half) and wish we would have spent more time there to explore other parts of this country. Walking across the street can be different and every now and then you feel a little intimidated but it had amazing food and the people we met were very nice. Plus it helps that your dollar goes a lot further here with dinners costing us about $6-$12 for full meals with very generous portions.
